A Deccani boat-shaped bronze kashkul with cover, South India, early 17th century

cast and engraved, the oval-shaped body on low splayed foot-ring with parrot-head knob-handles at either end, the fitted cover of similar though slightly shallower form with elegant lotus-form finial, engraved leaf-form panels filled with lotus blossoms and split-palmette arabesques covering the body and lid, the interior with dense bands, medallions and cartouches filled with Qur'anic inscriptions on a hatched ground with leaves

Published in 1400 Years of Islamic Art, London 1981, no. 53

inscriptions

Invocations to God, Muhammad and 'Ali; Qur'an, chapters CIX (al-kafirun); CX (al-nasr); CXII (al-ikhlas), CXIII (al-falaq) and LXI (al-saff) part of verse 13.

Later owner's name:  Khwaja Fathallah Kar-riz (?)

Related examples are to be found in the David Collection, Copenhagen, see von Folsach 2001, p.337, figs 550-552.