Nargile

Blue-and-white porcelains from China were especially prized in Islamic courts. Such objects were not only collected by Muslim rulers but also refitted or refashioned for new purposes. This nargile, or water pipe for smoking tobacco, incorporates an 18th-century Chinese blue-and-white vessel that was later embellished in the mid-19th century with fittings—including gilded silver, copper alloy, rubies, and emeralds—by artists in the Ottoman Empire. Refitted in this way, the Chinese ceramic vessel would have held water for the smoking process, most likely disregarding the original function of the vessel as a vase or something similar.

Provenance

Provenance (from the French provenir, 'to come from/forth') is the chronology of the ownership, custody, or location of a historical object.

R. S. Pardo, Constantinople; purchased by Henry Walters, Baltimore, 1903; by bequest to Walters Art Museum, 1931.