Is there a better time than Holi to launch a new jewellery museum? Not if you are in Jaipur, where the country’s annual celebration of spring is celebrated by the city’s royals with bonfires, singing, feasting and a lot of colour. And not when the museum is dedicated to ‘meenakari’, an ancient enamelling technique brought to India 500 years ago by the Portuguese.
Under the guidance of trailblazer Sunita Shekhawat, whose eponymous jewellery brand owns The Museum of Meenakari Heritage (MoMH), the colour palette of this jewellery technique has in the last decade blazed past the usual 20-25 shades to about 360. “Variation in temperature during the “firing” gives vitreous enamel its final visual appearance and defines its colour. It is a laborious process. As you become successful, you get the confidence to experiment,” says Sunita, 60, the only woman in her gemology class in Jaipur when she signed up decades ago. She has since gone on to become one of the country’s most successful jewellery designers and is hailed as the “Modern Meenakaar’ of India.
Museum of Meenakari Heritage, Jaipur
| Photo Credit:
Ishita Sitwala
The walkthrough
At the 2,200 sq.ft museum, part of a red sandstone haveli designed by Studio Lotus that also includes a retail division in the basement and a management floor, you embark on a journey that begins in the 15th century, meticulously curated by art and jewellery historian Usha R. Balakrishnan. Designed by Siddhartha Das Studio, the museum shows to advantage over 300 images sourced from museums and private collections and about 120 reproductions of Indian jewellery pieces that are now in international institutions such as the British Museum and Victoria & Albert Museum.
Sunita Shekhawat
| Photo Credit:
Kewal Chholak
“The role of a curator is to present a narrative, drawing upon images and objects. The historical reproductions we have done for the museum might be considered modern today, but will be historic in the future!”Usha BalakrishnanCurator
“Enamelling is not a jewellery manufacturing technique that is indigenous to India. But suddenly it flowers with the coming of the Portuguese to Goa,” says Balakrishnan, expanding on the great revival in enamelling in Europe at the time, and its impact on India, which was the centre of gem trading in the world. She highlights how Goan jewellers were sent to Portugal to learn jewellery setting techniques, and that raw materials came here from Europe, especially the vitreous glass from Murano in Venice. At the time, jewellery was being enamelled in the front and back in Europe. But as gemstones were becoming popular, soon enamelling got relegated to the back of the pieces.
Usha R. Balakrishnan
| Photo Credit:
SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT
At this cultural space, visitors can by appointment also brush up on their Meenakari vocabulary, be it colours like Fakhtahi or dove grey blue or Koon-e-kabouter (literally “pigeon blood”), a translucent red coloured enamel that can be a challenge to create, says Sunita. Techniques range from Ab-e-lehr, a gold base asymmetrically chased and engraved in the form of waves, to Boond tila, the chased and engraved gold base with translucent enamelling. As for the images, Balakrishnan says it took close to two years to get permissions because of the COVID shutdown of museums around the world.
Of horses and crowns
Enamelled pendants of dragons, horses and dolphins acted as charms for sea-faring people in Europe in the 16th century. On display at MoMH is a reproduction of a pendant with a prancing horse from Spain or Germany (1600-1625) studded with gold, diamonds, rubies, pearls and enamel. It utilises the complex émailen ronde bosse technique and while the method is uncommon in India, it has been accurately reproduced at the Sunita Shekhawat atelier, observes Balakrishnan. “It is the continuity of skills over 400 years. The craftsman had never done anything like this and it is almost like he had it in his DNA,” she says. Miniature paintings throw up much evidence too, especially from the court of Jehangir. There is an image of him wearing a pearl necklace with a cameo pendant. Or Shah Jahan holding a pendant with a miniature portrait of himself. All set in an enamelled frame. There are miniature crowns used back in the day for the Infant Jesus, and pendants where gems are set using the Konkan technique.
One of four
For a country known for its jewellery heritage, India has few museums dedicated to it. MoMH joins the Jewellery Gallery in the CSMVS Museum, Mumbai, also curated by Balakrishnan, and the Amrapali Museum and Gyan Museum in Jaipur. “The biggest challenge for a curator is to tell the story in a manner that is clear, concise and accessible to all,” says Balakrishnan. That she has succeeded is evident at the launch, as jewellery aficionados linger over each display case. The panel of florals used in Meenakari is especially memorable as it lists seven of the most common blooms, from the lotus to the oleander, sourced from the Dara Shikoh Album of miniatures (now in the possession of the British Library, London) and matched with both images of jewellery and reproductions.
Museum of Meenakari Heritage
| Photo Credit:
Ishita Sitwala
“The history of Meenakari in India, spanning more than 500 years, is a complex history of global connections, influences, transfer of technology, reinterpretation and indigenisation,” says Balakrishnan, commending the craftsmen at the Sunita Shekhawat atelier. Her personal favourites at MoMH are the European horse and the Sarpech, which are “outstanding testimonies of the genius of India’s artisanal skills”.
Meanwhile, Sunita, who is ably supported by her family at work – her daughter Niharika and son Digvijay take care of logistics and sourcing, respectively – says the next step at the permanent gallery is to organise an audio guide. As not everyone will be lucky to get a walkthrough by Balakrishnan! “It would be fantastic to have Naseeruddin Shah,” pipes in Niharika. Anything is possible.
Published – March 27, 2024 08:14 pm IST
