Indian Festival Pot with Four Loop Handles

Nearly four feet across. Clearly somebody expected company.

This festival pot with four loop handles is copper, from Rajasthan, India, late 18th or early 19th century. Large open vessels of this type are associated with communal cooking and feasts across India, where a festival could mean feeding a great many people at once. The outside has gone almost black, while the shallow interior still glows copper and red. A riveted band stamped with diamonds runs around the rim. Heavy rings hang from the loops. Thirteen and a half inches high and 45.5 inches in diameter.

The guest list has not survived.