Indian Colonial Silver Sugar Caster, Madras, C1920

A rare early 20th-century Anglo-Indian silver sugar caster on a circular foot, unmarked, from Madras, c1920. The body has five large oval embossed panels, bordered with plain silver and floral motifs, depicting a Vaishnava deity standing on a lotus, in the Swami style. The domed screw thread top presents a chased decoration of stylised semicircular acanthus leaves and drill pierced holes. An almost identical silver sugar caster from Madras is illustrated in Vidya Dehejia’s Delight in Design: Indian Silver for the Raj, (2008), p.121