Featured Benares Tray?

Hi all, went to a local Antique shop and found lots of nice but expensive stuff and then I did what I always do and look at the most dusty unloved part of the shop and found this tray. I thought it might be a Benares brass tray and after a lot of TLC and elbow grease it has come up very nicely. My only concern is that the figures don’t look Indian to me but I could be wrong. Any thoughts greatly appreciated as always .

 

Wow. What a difference!

 

@Any Jewelry, @Ce BCA ??
Just gave it a bit more contrast to make it easier to see the figures.....

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Looks Indian to me. Now youve shamed me into polishing my brass coffee table wich Ive neglected for far too long.

 

I bet that had legs.

 

You’re probably right. The same thought occurred to me. Probably folding legs. I only paid £15 for it so I’m not complaining .

 

Thanks for confirming! I suspect that will be me in a couple of months time.

 

Thanks Aquitaine. Looks even better like this!

 

I agree, Indian, but not Benares ware. It is lovely, and you did a great job. Can I borrow you for a day or so to polish some brass ware I have?

 

Thanks AJ. I have to admit that all Indian brass I have seen in the U.K. is labelled (or mislabelled) generically as Benares ware - can you help me understand the difference? What type of brass is this? Do you have any idea how old this is?

Sorry - so many questions - I would love to trade with my polishing skills but after Brexit, I’m not sure I’ll be allowed back into Europe.

 

Benares ware is heavier, I think most, if not all, of it is cast. It usually has some enamel, and the items and/or decorations have a religious connotation.

Many Brits still come here, and the Dutch don't have a problem with the Brits. Believe me, we have other concerns here, no time nor inclination to dwell on Brexit.
I think the Brits give the Brexit aftermath much more thought than the Continentals do, they talk about it a lot. Understandable from their point of view, but I think most people here would say "Bre-what? Last year's news, now let's talk about the situation with Pieter Omtzigt, and when will we have a government again. Any more covid aid going to Surinam?" etc, etc.

Coming here could be difficult right now though, with the Indian covid variant on the rampage in the UK.

 

Thanks AJ. I was half joking about Brexit but it’s good to know we haven’t completely burnt our bridges.

I have to say I agree with you. The variants are more of a concern. What did make me smile though is that we have the Indian variant, the Brazilian variant and the U.K. variant. But in the U.K. we don’t call ours the UK variant; we have to be more specific and we call it the Kent variant just to make it clear that this has absolutely nothing to do with the rest of the us. It’s all Kent’s fault!! Blame it on the people of Kent!

Fortunately we have this forum to keep us all sane by sharing our objects and experiences. Thanks everyone!!!

 

We have all of those too, and the South African variant too. We have the milder Brazilian variant though, and not many cases of the Delta (Indian) one. I am sure other variants will come along, some milder, some nastier.
The first cases of Delta (Indian) variant in the Benelux were students from India who had all been tested before coming to Belgium. At least one was vaccinated, but also had to be hospitalized.
We need to vaccinate the world population to get mutations under control, and we will have to keep researching new vaccines for new variants.

No matter how many variants you or we currently have, the Indian Delta really is the one to watch out for now. There is more proof it is resistant to vaccinations, especially in people who have only had one shot, like many Brits have. Using the total supply of vaccines to half-vaccinate most of the population seemed a good idea at the time, but now experts say that half a vaccination without follow up in the appropriate time frame could lead to more resistant variants. A bit like when people don't finish their antibiotics course.
Covid didn't come with a manual, and we are still learning to deal with it, and making mistakes as we do so.
Anyway, the rapid rise of the Delta variant cases in the UK is one of the reasons why we would rather not see any Brits at the moment, so for now we will wish you well, and wave to you from across the North Sea.

 

I get into a pink hissy spitting fit when they refer to variants as having country names. Let's just blame Johnny Foreigner eh? It's also bad science, given parallel evolution. So Delta is much better.

It's estimated all adults over 50, I think, will have been double jabbed by next Monday, and they're aiming for all adults by late July. Second doses are being brought forward a little now, although the decent research suggests that the 12 week gap was actually a Good Thing for AZ. The vaccine is the one thing that we've done right, mostly because it had bugger all to do with the government.

It won't need new vaccines as such for variants, they'll tweak the markers, jsut as for flu.

Thirty million have had both doses now.

https://coronavirus.data.gov.uk/details/vaccinations is pretty impressive.

 

I don't think it is about blaming anyone, but rather a start to getting a grip on an illness or mutations. If a Japanese researcher identifies a new mutation, it will probably be called Japanese at first.
Yes, people can get upset. We never got upset about the English term 'Dutch elm disease' btw, for a fungus that originated in Asia. Dutch scientists identified it, hence the name. The same way Brazilian, Indian and South African scientists identified covid mutations.
I don't know how the Spanish feel about the term Spanish flu, for a disease that originated in the US (as far as I know) but was first identified in Spain, but the term is still used.

Greek letters for the variants is certainly easier than a long list of hyphenated Latin letters and numbers. Let's just hope the Greeks won't protest.

That is what they originally thought, but it seems they are not so sure now.

 

After all that serious stuff, I feel a little frivolous with this comment. I didn't realise at first that the first photograph was associated with 2 & 3. I really thought it was stone.

 

Blimey. Sorry everyone. Didn’t mean to send everyone on a downer.

 

Actually it did look like stone in the shop. It was caked with dust grime, dead insects and suspicious looking marks but to me that’s just a challenge!!

 

Yup. It’s interesting to note that the variants are just named after places they were first identified in, in countries that can sequence the viruses. In theory they could have persisted in many other countries that do not have the technology to identify them so using Greek letters makes about as much sense as the calling them by the country of identification but perhaps less contentious.

 

Yup, and hence my comment on parallel variance.