DANIEL WALKER: This tiny, delicate object is a jeweled flask. The flask was created for someone in the Mughal court of India. The Mughal dynasty maintained what was probably the most lavish court in the world during its reign. The dynasty lasted from the early fifteen hundreds until 1858, when India came under British rule. Navina Haidar Haykel:

NAVINA HAIDAR HAYKEL: One of the trappings of their courtly lifestyle, if you like, was the fact that they used, extensively, great numbers of jeweled objects, and these included rock crystal little bottles such as this. This is a particularly appealing piece, because it shows us an intimate object—probably a perfume flask, or a flask for some kind of cosmetic—that is in the shape of a mango. A mango-shaped motif was very popular on, in many aspects of the Mughal decorative arts. And so here you see it in a three-dimensional form. And you see they have essentially embedded precious gems and gold wire into a base of rock crystal.

DANIEL WALKER: Rock crystal was greatly admired for its translucency, and was used to create many fine objects, both large and small.