A SET OF SIX FINE MOULD-BLOWN AND GOLD-PAINTED SQUARE GLASS BOTTLES PROPERTY FROM THE JOURDAN-BARRY COLLECTION OF INDIAN ART Possibly Gujarat, Western India, 18th century Each of vertical square shape, with recessing shoulders and cylindrical tall neck, each with their original cork stoppers and umbrella-shaped silver-gilt finials, the body painted in gold with paired motifs on the sides including lush floral bouquets emerging from large Western-inspired vases and village scenes with peacocks, lush vegetation, boats and pagoda-like edifices, hatched motif on the neck, each 15.5cm high. Provenance: Christie's London, 7 October 2008, lot 230. Square bottles of this type constitute a large portion of the surviving enamelled glass production of 18th-century India. Carboni explains that their shape derives from Dutch and German molded vessels, calledcase bottlesor gin bottles, which would have been primarilyproduced in the second half of the 17th century and come in sets of 6 or 8, such as ours, with their respective glasses. These sets were at first produced in Europe and later brought to India and sold on the local market. After the Dutch East India Company established a trade factory in Gujarat in 1618, the Netherlands became a relevant force in Western India in the 17th and 18th centuries. Western glass became very sought after and it wasn't long before Indian craftsmen started acquiring the skills to imitate the imported glass vessels. The first Indian glass factory was opened in Bhuj in the mid-18th century. The method of construction of bottles like ours, blown in a two-part mold with visible seams at the corners, is clearly postindustrial European. Mughal Indian bottles, however, do not seem to come with glasses, having undergone a change in their function, now containers of perfumed waters rather than drinkable liquids, differently from their European counterparts (S. Carboni and D. Whitehouse,Glass of the Sultans, New York, 2001, pp. 276 and 286-287).