Delight in Design
Project website 
Delight in Design was created for an exhibition of South Asian silver at the Wallach Gallery in 2008. Curated by Vidya Dehejia, Barbara Stoler Miller Professor of Indian and South Asian Art, the show presented a never-before exhibited selection of richly decorated silverware produced by Indian craftsmen during the Raj, the popular term for Crown rule of India between 1858 and 1947. The silverware, from various parts of the British India Empire, reveals a remarkable amalgam of tastes. Producing work for European customers, Indian silversmiths took European forms such as tea services, bowls, claret jugs, goblets, and beer mugs and developed a unique manner of embellishing these objects with designs that attest to an innate Indian fondness for decoration. While the shape and function of Raj silver catered to colonial tastes and demands, the exterior surfaces displayed indigenous decorative skills in design, including pattern, figuration, and all manner of embellishment.
