This scent bottle is a splendid example of a scent bottle which has been finely decorated with floral sprays and foliage, incised using diamond drills and small lap wheels, and which are typically Mughal. A ruby sits at the centre of the leaf decorations on both sides of the bottle. The decoration of present bottle is a great example of the Mughal fascination for nature, as highlighted by the use of floral and leaf motifs in low relief. An example of a rock-crystal bottle of comparable shape and decoration isa Mughal rock-crystal vessel dated to the 17th Century is in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (Acc. No. 1993.18), while other examples have been sold at Christie's (see Arts of India, 1 October 2012, lot 180).

The Mughal dynasty was founded in 1526 when Babur, a Central Asian Muslim prince, followed the example of his ancestor Timur (d.1405) and invaded the land he knew as Hindustan (the Indian subcontinent). Babur's languages were Turki, in which he wrote his memoirs, and Persian, the language of culture across Iran and Central Asia.
The "golden age" of Mughal art covered the period from about 1580 to 1650. Hindu and Muslim artists and craftsmen from the northern regions of the Indian subcontinent worked with Iranian masters in the the royal workshops. The combination of their different traditions and the technological and cultural transfer between different artisans resulted in a new distinctive style which included -and transformed- elements of all these different cultures.