SOUTH INDIA, 19TH CENTURY

A vanki is worn on the upper part of the arm. A pair of gold vanki are in the collection of the Victoria & Albert Museum which belonged to John Johnston from Alva in Scotland, who had acquired them prior to 1765 (acc.no.IS.28:1&2-1997). However most surviving examples, like ours, date from the 19th century. A V-shaped example of similar design to ours is in the Barbier-Mueller collection (Usha R Bala Krishnan, Icons in Gold: Jewellery of India, Paris, 2005, p.160, no.32). Closely related to the decoration on these pieces is the decoration on combs from Southern India, such as one in the Susan L Beningson Collection upon which can be found two peacocks with a similarly voluminous cascade of tail feathers to our example (Molly Emma Aitken, When Gold Blossoms: Indian Jewelry from the Susan L Beningson Collection, New York, 2004, p.136, no.154).

Another divine couple, flanked by peacocks, can be found on a tiger claw amulet attributed to Madras in the collection of Chhote Bharany in New Delhi (Oppi Untracht, Traditional Jewelry of India, London, 1998, p.93, no.153).