An Indian almandine garnet bowl, 17th Century.

The small bowl, of almost hemispherical form, is shown on the left of the accompanying image. It was almost certainly from Cambay on the west coast of India, which then, as now, was the centre of the Indian hardstone industry. It appears in the 1690 Devonshire Schedule, an inventory recording a huge bequest from the Countess of Devonshire to her daughter Anne, Countess of Exeter: ‘a Round Garnett Cupp’, which appears under the heading ‘Cornelian Coralls, Garnetts and other Stones’.