A Mughal jade fly-whisk from the collection of the Viceroy Curzon, Northern India, 17th/ 18th century

the stem carved in stone of mid-green tone of cup-form worked around the exterior with a frieze of upright stylized lotus leaves outlined with inlaid gold, the narrowed base swelling to a bulbous ridge inlaid with gold and rubies in a design of a foliate garland, the handle composed in sections of contrasting dark and pale green stone shortening toward a bud-form terminal

George Nathaniel Curzon, 1st Marquess Curzon of Kedleston, Viceroy of India (1898-1905)
Lady Alexandra Metcalfe (known to her friends as `Baba`) whose husband Edward Dudley Metcalfe (known to his friends as `Fruity`) stood as best-man at the Duke of Windsor's wedding in 1937
And thence by descent

By the time of the Mughal Empire, the fly-whisk, or chauri, had left behind its functional role and had been established as an emblem of office, held above the head of a ruler at court and in royal portraiture. The role of holding the fly-whisk, the chauri bearer, had become an official court position. On coming to India, the British, both in the time of the East India Company and, subsequently, the British Empire, were frequently taken by these emblems of Mughal courtly life, affecting, to greater or lesser degrees, elements of these practices into their own daily lives. By the time Curzon came to India, the interest in such pieces tended to be more scholarly and even ethnographic though it is tempting to imagine that a viceroy might have thought it apt to possess such objects as the successors to Mughal rule. A century earlier, Clive of India, in effect, one of Curzon's predecessors, had owned three fly-whisks, all in banded agate (Powis 1987, pp.122-3, no.178).

Curzon was energetically influential in the British attempts to preserve Mughal monuments, playing a significant role in the conservation programme of several of them, notably the Taj Mahal and Humayun's tomb in Delhi. Amongst the other Mughal objects he collected was another fly-whisk that was subsequently given to the Victoria and Albert Museum (inv.no.255-1927). Both this and the present example would originally have been mounted with a yak's tail.