Page 48 - the 32nd UK SummerNational Auction

The Nizam Treasure
is another four bore ordered in 1876 and Nawab Salar Jung Mukhtar-ul Mulk, Prime Minister of Hyderabad for Mirza Toffal Ali Beg Khan Bahadur in 1885. The Prime Minister also referred to Rogers Rock & Co as his agents in London who organised travel and accommodation when he first had a European tour (Rogers, Rock also had offices in at Brussels, Paris & Italy) before visiting London. So, they were agents for the sourcing, whether bottles and other items, rather than
actual bottle makers.
The rein of the Nizam’s predecessors was characterised by a disorganised and corrupt state. Government hardly existed. That it did later was down to Mir Turab Ali Khan Bahadur, known as Sir Salar Jung I (1828-1883) who became Co Regent for Mir Mahabub Ali Khan. Both he and his son Mir Laiq Ali Khan (also prime minister 1884-87 to H. H. Mir Mahabub Ali Khan), toured British towns to see the factories of Manchester, Birmingham, and Wolverhampton factories in the 1880s, seeing the production of everything from pen nibs to steam trains and
glassmaking.
While here it was
noted Mir Laiq
Ali Khan was
not tea total:
he was noted
for remarkable
capacity for
whiskey and
was 24 stone at
t24 years old.
The soda water
may have been a mixer then!
Rogers, Rock became intimately entwined in the affairs of the Nizam’s and were described as the ‘State’s Agents’. They reported on deaths in the Nizam’s court to the London papers and in 1885 arranged for the gift of two tigers to be shipped to London Zoo. When a report that a fabulously large (“The Big”) diamond had been stolen from the Nizam
This near legendary hybrid bottle was only known from a few pictures (see BBR 116 & 164). Though brken British fragments have been found amber hybrids are one of the holy grails
for mineral water bottle collectors. There are perhaps two complete specimens only side embossed for ‘Rogers, Rock
& Co/ London’ that had a rumoured likely Indian connection to their origin. This bottle is the only example with the more extensive embossing
of ‘HH THE NIZAM’S GOVERNMENT/ [Hindoo text]/ HYDERABAD// Rogers Rock & Co/ LONDON, proving the connection.
Joseph Rock was born in 1836/37 at Hayes in Middlesex. In the 1861 census described as
a “Warehouse Man” he is living at 1 Britannia Villa, Hampstead, with his cousin Robert Baynes whose daughter he married. In 1871 described as: Merchant / East Indian, he is at The Grove, Merton Road in Wimbledon along with his three daughters and a son. From 1882 to 1899 the firm of Rogers, Rock & Co: Merchants and East India Agents, were at Friday Street, Cheapside, E.C. and 4 Blue Boar Court, E.C. They were a kind of logistics supplier, sourcing anything and everything for those trading or travelling to or from the Indian Ocean region.
The Roger’s part of the partnership has been difficult to track down, but a likely candidate
is Henry Rogers, a chemist in Bombay (now Mumbai). In 1837 he set up what was likely western India’s first “aerated water” factory and probably acted as the Indian agency end. The company were appointed suppliers of the Governor there. Water supplies were often polluted and might cause cholera, typhus or dysentery. The first chemists and druggists’ establishments made a beginning there from the early part of the nineteenth century and supplied bottle water.
Before Mumbai completed its modern
waterworks in the late 19th Century, it relied on well water, which was filthy and potentially deadly. The Nizam of Hyderabad worked closely with the British and to them, as commissaries to the army and military messes, and supplies to owners of hotels and Europe shops in cities.
Dating a hybrid shape is tricky if it lacks the
usual embossing relating to bottle makers.
the Prime Minister asked them to put a denial out. Joseph Rock was also appointed to the board of the
Codd pictured a hybrid in one of his earliest patents (No 2212, 1871) but
in the world and mentioned he used a diamond ‘the size of an Ostrich egg’ as a paperweight. This
shapes already in use. The fact that it doesn’t give a maker’s name or patent suggest it is
He owned the Golconda Diamond Mines, the source of the largest diamonds in the world from the 16th to 19th centuries. These included the Koh-i-Noor, Hope Diamond, Princie Diamond and Regent Diamond. Another, the Jacob Diamond, was found in an old shoe belonging to the last Nizam’s father It was said he never wore the same clothes twice and used a wing of his palace as a wardrope. The Jacob was sold for $13 million to the Indian government.
This is a reduced Guy Burch article from BBR magazine 178.
a ‘Codd’s expired patent’ period bottle and the lip (square not blobby) and the pinch,
along with chunky embossing, suggests the Hyderabad bottle dates around 1885-90.
Rogers Rock & Co were East India agents for all sorts of things, not just for bottles. They handled anything and confirmation of their trade with the Nizan of Hyderabad comes in a rather unusual form. On pages 67-69 in: Holland & Holland, the Royal
The hybrid that has reappeared may not be a treasure quite as fabulous as the diamond but it is certainly a find to dazzle mineral water bottle collectors, and a likely record breaker?
Gun Maker, by Donald Dallas is a four bore elephant rifle made for the Nizam, H.
H. Mir Mahabub Ali Khan (1866-1911). It was ordered via Rogers Rock & Co. There
Hyderabad Mining Company.
The Nizam’s, successor His Exalted Highness
Mir Osman Ali Khan Siddiqui, the last ruler of the Asafi Jahi Dynasty was fabulously wealthy. Time Magazine featured him in 1937 as the richest man
remember his patent are about the neck, shoulders and ball, not the shape of the body. They were meant for bottle
Nizam Diamond, also known as the “little Koh-i- noor”, did go missing in 1948. They had plenty more.