The 400-year-old treasures of India’s one-time rulers are still startlingly magnificent
It was “the treasury of the world”, according to Sir Thomas Roe, writing in 1614 to the future Charles I from Agra, where he was England’s first ambassador to the Mughal emperor. The court whose wealth, splendour and culture so dazzled him was that of Jahangir, ruler over ever-expanding territories that stretched from the Himalayas almost to the tip of India.
It is jaw-droppingly pretty, the epitome of outrageous, just-because-we-can luxury. There was export too: a hefty circular shield on display here is covered with tiny figures, horsemen and animals among elaborate foliage and patterning tightly worked in glittering mother-of-pearl inlay, a masterpiece of metalwork and marquetry.
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