Case Bottle with an Amorous Couple in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, January 2022

Title: Case Bottle with an Amorous Couple and a Lady with a Deer

Date: first half 18th century

Geography: Attributed to India, Gujarat

Medium: Glass, colorless; mold blown, enameled, and gilded

Dimensions: H. 5 1/2 in.

Classification: Glass

Credit Line: Rogers Fund, 1921

Accession Number: 21.26.11


Gilding and enameling were the most popular form of decorating glass in the eighteenth century, and the most common form was a square-shaped bottle, called a "case bottle" because of its similarity to European transport bottles made to fit in wooden cases. In fact, many case bottles were actually made in Europe and later painted in India. They were usually decorated with floral motifs on two sides, and with figural scenes similar in style and subject matter to contemporary paintings on the other two sides.

Text from: www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/447365