A DETACHED FOLIO FROM A POLIER ALBUM: MULLAH SHAH BADAKHSHI (D. 1635)

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The following four lots are from three different Polier Albums. Antoine Louis Henri Polier, born in Lausanne in 1741, entered the service of the British East India Company as a surveyor in 1757. By 1762, he had become Chief Engineer of the Bengal Army in Calcutta and began working on the design and construction of the new Fort William; he then rose to the rank of major and took command of the Fort Garrison. Though Polier was first sent to Awadh as a surveyor, it was recommended to the Nawab Shuja’ al-Daula that he be made the chief architect for the kingdom of Awadh - and be the eyes and ears of the British East India Company at the Nawab's court. Polier became wealthy from his commissions for court buildings as well as from private trading, and he built a palace in Lucknow that he called Polierganj or "Polier's Dream-Potion." Polier was dismissed from the service of the Nawab of Awadh in 1782, and was asked by Warren Hastings to remain in Lucknow as an appointee of the Company with the honorary rank of Lieutenant-Colonel, as Polier's knowledge of Awadh was considered essential to the Company’s interests. After 30 years in India, Polier left in 1787 and settled in France where he was murdered in a robbery in 1795. During his time in India, Polier collected Persian and Sanskrit manuscripts and Indian miniatures, and he possessed a complete collection of the Vedas. His collection began with a gift of three albums given to him in 1767, which inspired him to assemble further albums including scenes of Indian life that were being created to satisfy Western taste. He collected the antique works he could find, and also commissioned new works, principally through his favoured retained artist Mihr Chand who was largely responsible for arranging the layout and decoration of the albums made for his collection of paintings. The distinctive mount with a broad band of naturalistic flowers between two narrow borders with stylized floral motifs, the overall palette, and the handwritten inscription in French on lot 24, indicate that this and the following three paintings were commissioned by Polier.

A DETACHED FOLIO FROM A POLIER ALBUM: MULLAH SHAH BADAKHSHI (D. 1635)

LUCKNOW, PROVINCIAL MUGHAL INDIA, MID-18TH CENTURY; THE CALLIGRAPHY SIGNED MUHAMMAD 'ALI, INDIA, DATED AH 1194/1780-81 AD

Details

A DETACHED FOLIO FROM A POLIER ALBUM: MULLAH SHAH BADAKHSHI (D. 1635)
LUCKNOW, PROVINCIAL MUGHAL INDIA, MID-18TH CENTURY; THE CALLIGRAPHY SIGNED MUHAMMAD 'ALI, INDIA, DATED AH 1194/1780-81 AD
Opaque pigments heightened with gold on paper, facing right, holding a pomegranate, a brown shawl thrown over his shoulders, laid on card, with wide floral borders between simple gold floral margins on blue ground ; the reverse with a nasta'liq quatrain in similar margins and borders
Folio 15 ½ x 11 ¼in. (38.4 x 28.5cm.), the painting 8 x 4 1/8in. (20.4 x 10.4cm.), the quatrain 6 ¾ x 4in. (17 x 10.2cm.)

Provenance

Acquired at Maggs Bros., London, 24 June 1976

Lot Essay

The obverse of our album page bears a portrait of Mullah Shah Badakhshi (1550–1635) who was a Sufi of the Qadiri order. He acted as teacher to the Mughal Prince Dara Shikoh and his sister Jahanara Begum (Annemarie Schimmel, The Empire of the great Mughals: history, art and culture, London, 2004, p.135). The Royal Collection Trust houses another portrait of Mullah Shah Badakhshi, which is very similar to ours (inv. no. RCIN 1005038). The reverse bears a quatrain by the Persian poet, Sa’di, signed by Muhammad ‘Ali who was a master calligrapher active in Lucknow and whose work features on many known Polier albums. A Polier album housed in the Victoria and Albert Museum which is purely dedicated to calligraphy bears a number of further specimens by Muhammad Ali (inv. no. 4765-1858). For further examples of folios from the Polier Album see volume I. 4593 at the Museum für Islamische Kunst, Berlin.

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