Lewke's Cannon: A Visual and Political Dialogue Captured in Gold and Silver

The Lewke cannon was one of the selected items in Pilot Project Provenance Research on Objects Colonial Era launched 2019. This has gained attention globally because its unique and unmatched decorations. While history being looted from palace Kandy been recorded by various historians, very little given to actual decoration cannon. article shows that inscription outer surface were applied as a gift prominent Sri Lankan figure King Vijaya Rajasinha 1745-46 such represents an internal political moment Kandyan kingdom. research into brings fore craftsmanship this eighteenth-century South Asian region. ancient motifs have applied, craftsmen able emphasize already present bronze cast seventeenth-century Netherlands, amongst which emblems, well adapt their better suit present. In all, contribution how analysis provides us with new insight mid-eighteenth-century social-political cultural context, while at same time revealing global diplomacy.