A silver openwork bezoar or goa stone case and stone, North India, 18th century, of...

A silver openwork bezoar or goa stone case and stone, North India, 18th century, of hemispherical form separating into two halves each decorated with fine leafy trellis, 4.4cm. high x 3.5cm. diam.

Provenance: Private collection of Oliver Hoare (1945-2018)

Bezoar stone, which is a calcified concretion found in the stomachs of some animals, was prized for its supposed medicinal properties as well as being believed to act as an antidote to poison. The scarcity of bezoar stones by the 17th century led a group of Portuguese Jesuits working in Goa to come up with a man-made version. These so called 'Goa Stones' were a mixture of bezoar as well as other precious objects believed to have curative powers. Until the beginning of the 18th century, when medical authorities began to debunk the belief in these stones, they could sell for more then their weight in gold. The importance and costliness of bezoar stones meant that they were often mounted themselves with gold and silver often in filigree or were encased in elaborate filigree boxes such as the example here. One example in the Topkapi Saray Museum, Istanbul, is of gold set with rubies and emeralds and is believed to have been made in India in the seventeenth century (see Komaroff, 2011, p. 258.)

The king of Cochin sent Portugals Manuel I (reigned 1495-1521) a bezoar stone shortly before the Portuguese began trading there (Jordan, 2007, p. 91).

Several engraved and pierced silver bezoar stone boxes are known in public collections. Several are held in the collection of the Wellcome Museum of Medicine, London. The Science Museum, London, has a gold bezoar stone box on a stand, its pierced and engraved scrolling decoration includes small animals (accession no. A642470). Two others, one silver, the other gold, both with contemporaneous stands, are in The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (accession nos. respectively 1980.228.1, 2a,b, .3 and 2004.244a-d). Click here to see an example in the British Museum.