Four bidri silver and copper-inlaid Charpai legs, Bidar, Deccan, Central India, 18th century, comprising four legs of Indian charpai (a traditional handwoven bed), shaped as flower blossoms on squared base, rising from the central bud a squared structure, pierced on two sides to accommodate the sticks of the bed, the latter two sides full, the top worked as a blossoming floral bud with lush petals all around, the body clad in copper and silver inlay laid out in a diamond-shaped grid of stylised flower heads, drop-like pattern to the base, 25cm high (4)These charpai legs share a number of similarities with a set of what Zebrowski calls "the slaves of the carpet" (i.e. carpet weights), also known as mir-i farsh (Mark Zebrowski, Gold, Silver and Bronze from Mughal India, London, 1997, p. 131). Indeed, in the Krishna Riboud Collection, there is a set of carpet weights from Bidar, dating to the early 18th century, with exactly the same inlaid diamond-grid floral pattern as ours (ibidem, fig. 160). Moreover, the lower body of our charpai legs, designed as a blossoming flower surrounded by a multitude of petals and standing on a squared base, is virtually the same of the Riboud Collection mir-i farsh, showing the fluidity of motifs and designs on items with different uses.Please refer to department for condition report