Indian Brass Traveling Altar

A round brass face, finely stamped, with a small flower at its heart.

This traveling altar was made in India in the 19th century in brass. Portable altars are commonly used in Hindu devotion and carried for worship away from home. The form is a shallow circular plate or dish, ringed by many fine rows of tiny stamped marks. At the center is a raised, round boss shaped like an eight-petaled flower. The metal has darkened to a smoky brown with golden hints on the raised parts.

About ten inches across. Mounted, it reads as a sun, or a very old coin.