Jade Collection of the National Museum, New Delhi

Mughal jades, apart from contemporary architectural embellishment, was the primary form of sculptural expression in northern India during the 17th to 19th centuries.

Finished jade objects were often damascened with gold or silver, enamelled or studded with jewels, not only for external beauty but also to grant them royal status.

Jade formed an important material with which small objects like thumb rings, wine cups, plates, trays, boxes, huqqa bowls, dagger and sword hilts and the like were fashioned and decoratively enriched with various designs.

They had workshop and factories where these artistic objects were manufactured in a refined style and encouraged artists-craftsman and artisans to come to their courts to receive honours and grants.

[citation needed] The term jade is commonly used to cover the nephrite, jadeite and chloromelanite groups of minerals, all of which are hard and attractively coloured.

This precious stone mainly comes from the rivers Karakash and Yarkand in Kwen-Lun range and Kashgar, in southern and northern China, besides Upper Myanmar and Tibet.

A variety of jade jewellery and utility objects was used by Islamic rulers such Timurids, Ottomans of Turkey, Safavids of Persia and Mughals of India.

An English Sea Captain, Howkins, who visited Jahangir's court in 1613 found five hundred cups made of rubies, emeralds, jade and other semi-precious stones.

Akbar and his successors continued and upgraded this system and under their personal supervision exquistive jewellery items, imaginative armoury articles and a variety of utilitarian artefacts were crafted.

Among various uttarian artefacts, the surahi (flask), which was used for keeping wine or water, is a rare example of jade carving.

Each of the joints is beautifully decorated with six petal flower motifs, which have been worked with gold leaf covering and glass.

The neck portion of surahi is made of small rectangular jade pieces on which row of diamond design has been worked out.

Among all the exquisite examples, the most unusual object displayed in the jade utility section is the cup, on which the name of the Mughal Emperor Akbar II Shah (1760–1837) is inscribed in Persian.

Other objects include studded plated, betel and spice boxes, cups, bowls, spoon, plaques, tumblers etc.

All these artefacts help in understanding the artistic taste of patrons and craftsmanship of artisans prevalent during the 17–19th Century CE.