This wine cup of dark green nephrite jade was owned by Mughal Emperor Jahangir, whose name is included in the Persian verses incised in Nastaliq script round the rim and filled at a later date with white composition. The verses translate to: “Through the World-Conquering Shah, the world found order. Our time became filled with light by the radiance of his justice. From the reflection of his spinel-coloured wine may, the jade cup be for ever like a ruby.” The verses are interrupted by two quatrefoils containing the date according to the Muslim era (1022) and the emperor’s regnal year, which together shows that the cup was inscribed between February 21 and August 6, 1613. The superintendent of the royal goldsmiths at the time was also rewarded by Jahangir for his skills as a poet. The quatrain includes a verse known to have been written by Sa’ida-ye Gilani, the head of the royal goldsmiths’ department during the reign of Jahangir, who was also a master calligrapher specialising in inscribing jade and precious stones. The writing on the cup also compares closely with that on a spinel known to have been made by Sa’ida, thus making it almost certain that he was the maker of the cup, as demonstrated by A.S. Melikian-Chirvani in Sa’ida-ye Gilani and the Iranian Style Jades of Hindustan, Bulletin of the Asia Institute.
The cup was part of the collection of the Royal Asiatic Society deposited in the India Museum and transferred to the South Kensington Museum in 1879, before being given to the V&A in 1924.
The cup was part of the collection of the Royal Asiatic Society deposited in the India Museum and transferred to the South Kensington Museum in 1879, before being given to the V&A in 1924.