Calcutta silver earned its reputation in the late 19th century as one of the more exuberant strands of Anglo-Indian silverware, made largely for a British colonial market with a taste for pattern that would have looked overwrought on a London sideboard but read as exactly right shipped home from India. This basket leans into that fully: a fluted, petal-shaped rim worked with pierced openwork sits above a base embossed with a small chase scene — a dog, a cat and a rabbit caught mid-pursuit through dense shrubbery — the kind of narrative detail that rewards actually picking the thing up rather than glancing at it from across a room.
The three fish-form feet are a nice bit of structural wit, holding the whole piece aloft on tails and fins rather than anything so mundane as a plain pedestal, and fit within a wider tradition of animal and botanical motifs that Calcutta silversmiths returned to again and again, presumably because customers kept buying them. It has been XRF tested and confirmed as 925 sterling silver.
Condition notes
Excellent antique condition. The legs are a bit uneven in height, so the bowl skews to one side.
