'Shikhi' Glass Votive Set of 3 in Glass, Wood and Brass

Provenance

Three frosted glass tealight holders on a printed wooden base with a cast brass peacock at the centre. The Shikhi set brings together three North Indian craft traditions: the decorated woodware of the workshop (the base and its print), the glass candleware tradition (the frosted cups), and the brass casting tradition (the peacock form). Shikhi is the classical Sanskrit epithet for the peacock — the crested one — named for the distinctive crown of feathers that marks the bird above all others. Shikhi is also a Sanskrit word for fire, which wears its own crest of dancing flame: the peacock and the flame share the quality of rising to a point.

The peacock is among the most depicted forms in Indian visual culture — present in temple carvings, Mughal carpet borders, Rajput court paintings, Kutchi embroidery, and the iconography of Krishna, who wears the peacock's eye-feather in his crown. The brass peacock on this votive set is a small casting from this tradition: a domestic version of a form produced in Indian metalwork from the large court-scale sculpture to the small figure placed at a household shrine.

Disclaimer

• Glass tealight cups are individually fitted; minor variations in placement are expected.
• The brass peacock is a cast fitting. Minor variations in surface finish are natural features of cast brasswork and are not defects.