Indian Bronze Mold for Amulet

Seated figure sits quietly inside nested frames, with green tinting the grooves.

This bronze mold for casting or pressing amulets is from India, and dates to the early 20th century. In India, small amulets and devotional images have long been worn or kept for protection, and molds allowed makers to produce them in quantity. Pentagonal slab in pale gold with a rope-twist border and an inner frame of stepped lines. The central figure sits cross-legged with several arms, in shallow engraved relief. Green deposits gather in the recesses and a row of lines runs along the base. It is 1.25 inches wide, 1.5 deep and 0.25 high.

Framed, bordered, and thoroughly well composed.