Portrait of Aurangzeb, by Anup Chattar,

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Portrait of Aurangzeb, by Anup Chattar,
pen and ink on paper heightened with gold and colour, the emperor stands facing right wearing bejwelled turban and turrah, he holds a small fly-whisk in his right hand, inscribed below 'amala anup chattar sina ahad' (painted by Anup Chattar in the first year), gold and coloured rules between black rules, green border painted with gold meadering trefoil, on cream album leaf painted with gold lattice (trimmed), Mughal India, 1658-9 AD - miniature 24 x 14cm.; verso with six lines of black nasta'liq calligraphy signed by 'Abd al-Wahhab and dated AH 1079/1668-9 AD, gold meandering vine border on blue ground, cream album leaf as recto - calligraphy 19.5 x 9.7cm., folio 29.8 x 21.4cm.
See colour plate x

Lot Essay

The artist Anup Chattar has not been properly studied but at least ten miniature paingings have been ascribed to him (Som Prakash Verma: Mughal Painters and their Work, Delhi 1994). He is thought to have started his career under Shah Jehan and perhaps worked for Dara Shikoh. A portrait in the India Office Library is dated AH 1090/1679 AD (Falk and Archer, 1981, p.94, no.117).

We are grateful to Robert Skelton for his help in the cataloguing of this and the following lot.

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