Lot Essay
Haydar 'Ali, son of the artist Muhammad Isma'il naqqashbashi, was renowned for painting qalamdans with Nasir al-Din Shah and courtiers of the period. For his biography and a list of works, see Mohammad Ali Karimzadeh Tabrizi, The Lives and Art of Old Painters of Iran and a Selection of Masters from the Ottoman and Indian Regions (London, 1985, vol. 1, pp.163-64). A pencase decorated with portraits of Sheikh Baha'i and various other Sufis which is attributed to Haydar 'Ali is in the Nasser D. Khalili Collection (Nasser D. Khalili, B.W.Robinson and Tim Stanley, Lacquer of the Islamic Lands, Part Two, London, 1997, p.39-41, no.236).