A JAIPUR BLUE POTTERY ‘PARVATI’ FLASK, INDIA, RAJASTHAN, 19TH CENTURY OR EARLIERFinely molded and painted in bright cobalt-blue and turquoise-green to depict Parvati seated on her husband Shiva’s mount, Nandi, holding a rosary in one hand, adorned with scarves and jewelry, her face with a calm expression, the foot and neck with petal borders, the short sides with lotus blossoms and foliage.Provenance: London trade.Condition: The fragmentary flask with wear, losses, chips, and light scratches.Weight: 723.7 gDimensions: Height 26.8 cmBlue pottery is widely recognized as a traditional craft of Jaipur of Central Asian origin. The name’ blue pottery’es from the eye-catching cobalt blue dye used to color the pottery. It is one of many Eurasian types of blue and white pottery and is related in its shapes and decoration to Islamic and Chinese pottery. Jaipur blue pottery, made out of ceramic frit material similar to Egyptian faience, is glazed and low-fired. No clay is used: the ‘dough’ for the pottery is prepared by mixing quartz stone powder, powdered glass, Multani Mitti (Fuller’s Earth), borax, gum, and water.Literatureparison:Compare a closely related flask illustrated in Kristine Michael, ‘Earthen Jewels: Pottery Treasures from the Hendley Collection’, in Chandramani Singh (ed.), Treasures of the Albert Hall Museum, Jaipur, p. 50. Further related examples are on display in the Albert Hall Museum.