Green glass huqqa base

Mughal India, about AD 1700

With gilded floral decoration

Tobacco was introduced into India at the end of the sixteenth century. Huqqas, or 'hubble-bubble' pipes became extremely popular, the tobacco being drawn through cool water. The bases, which contained the water, were made from a variety of materials including metal, jade and, more rarely, glass.

Glass production in Mughal India was limited as so much glass was imported from Iran and Europe. The vessels that were made locally tend to imitate the shapes of objects in other media. In this case the shape and floral decoration copies bidri ware huqqa bases of blackened zinc inlaid with gold and silver.

H. Tait (ed.), Five thousand years of glass (London, The British Museum Press, 1991)