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Source Description
Blue-and-white porcelains from China were especially prized in Islamic courts. Such objects were not only collected by Muslim rulers but also refitted or refashioned for new purposes. This nargile, or water pipe for smoking tobacco, incorporates an 18th-century Chinese blue-and-white vessel that was later embellished in the mid-19th century with fittings—including gilded silver, copper alloy, rubies, and emeralds—by artists in the Ottoman Empire. Refitted in this way, the Chinese ceramic vessel would have held water for the smoking process, most likely disregarding the original function of the vessel as a vase or something similar.
Scholar Source Context
Document identity
localId
7302
label
Nargile
core
obj
dtoType
object
citationUrl
pageCount
16
Source metadata
id
7302
sourceUrl
contentType
object
stage
normalized
title
Nargile
description
Blue-and-white porcelains from China were especially prized in Islamic courts. Such objects were not only collected by Muslim rulers but also refitted or refashioned for new purposes. This nargile, or water pipe for smoking tobacco, incorporates an 18th-century Chinese blue-and-white vessel that was later embellished in the mid-19th century with fittings—including gilded silver, copper alloy, rubies, and emeralds—by artists in the Ottoman Empire. Refitted in this way, the Chinese ceramic vessel would have held water for the smoking process, most likely disregarding the original function of the vessel as a vase or something similar.
provenance
R. S. Pardo, Constantinople; purchased by Henry Walters, Baltimore, 1903; by bequest to Walters Art Museum, 1931.
date
Vessel: ca. 1720; Water pipe: mid 19th century
citationUrl
rightsUri
CC0
language
en
genreSpecific
water pipes
imageCount
16
pageCount
16
source
import
dimensions
units
cm
width
66.5
height
17.5
depth
16
dimensionsRaw
H with lid: 26 3/16 × W: 6 7/8 × D: 6 5/16 in. (66.5 × 17.5 × 16 cm); Bottle H: 22 5/16 × W: 6 7/8 × D: 6 5/16 in. (56.7 × 17.5 × 16 cm); Lid H: 4 1/16 × Diam: 3 3/8 in. (10.3 × 8.5 cm)
Source extras
cul
Chinese and Ottoman Turkish
med
Gilded silver, copper alloy, porcelain with underglaze blue, enamels, rubies (or spinels), emeralds (beryls), enamel, gilding
creator_ids
6238
16163
collection_ids
ISL
CHN
exhibition_ids
2514
3300
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