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Lot Essay
The Tutinama (Tales of the Parrot) is a collection of fifty-two moralizing fables compiled in Persian by Ziya al-Din Nakshahbi around 1329-30. These were based on an earlier Persian translation of a Sanskrit text known as the Sukasaptati (seventy tales of a parrot). The Tutinama is an amusing series of tales woven around a merchant, Maimum who leaves his wife, Khojasta, in the care of a parrot and a myna. The wife kills the myna for advising her not to take a lover while her huband is away; the parrot, to save its skin and preserve her fidelity, proceeds to tell her a series of stories over the next fifty-two nights.
The tale of the present scene concerns a potter who one day breaks his pots in anger, scarring himself in the process. During a subsequent drought, he is forced to seek service with the king who sees his scars and believes him to be from a family of warriors, eventually appointing him to lead his army against a formidable enemy. He confesses to the king that he is not from warrior stock but, determined to prove himself, begs the king to bestow the position on him. Understanding the futility of denying one’s origins, the king laughs, and tells the story of the jackal who, despite being raised by lions, was useless in hunting elephants.
The Mughal emperor Akbar I (r.1556-1605) must have enjoyed these charming stories, for two extensively illustrated imperial copies of the Tutinama survive from the early years of his reign. The first Akbari copy of this text survives virtually complete in the Cleveland Museum of Art. The second, from which this folio comes, has been dispersed and is in various collections. The bulk of the manuscript, some 143 folios and 102 miniatures, are in the Chester Beatty Library, Dublin (L. Leach, Mughal and other Indian Paintings from the Chester Beatty Library, Dublin, London 1995, Vol.I, pp.21-74). Hence it is commonly referred to as the ‘Chester Beatty Tutinama’.
The manuscript was brought to France from India by General Jean-François Allard (1785-1839) who had been in the service of Sikh ruler, Maharaja Ranjit Singh. It was purchased by Felix Feuillet (also known as Baron F.S. Feuillet de Conches), a collector of manuscripts, and was dispersed towards the end of the 19th century when the Baron’s collection was dissolved. Other folios are now in The Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (68.8.47), the Keir Collection, The Victoria and Albert Museum, London (IS.40-1966), the National Museum, New Delhi, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (M.81.8.6) and the David Collection, Copenhagen (inv.no 3⁄1999) to name a few. A folio from the same manuscript was recently sold in these Rooms, 28 October 2021, lot 41.
The tale of the present scene concerns a potter who one day breaks his pots in anger, scarring himself in the process. During a subsequent drought, he is forced to seek service with the king who sees his scars and believes him to be from a family of warriors, eventually appointing him to lead his army against a formidable enemy. He confesses to the king that he is not from warrior stock but, determined to prove himself, begs the king to bestow the position on him. Understanding the futility of denying one’s origins, the king laughs, and tells the story of the jackal who, despite being raised by lions, was useless in hunting elephants.
The Mughal emperor Akbar I (r.1556-1605) must have enjoyed these charming stories, for two extensively illustrated imperial copies of the Tutinama survive from the early years of his reign. The first Akbari copy of this text survives virtually complete in the Cleveland Museum of Art. The second, from which this folio comes, has been dispersed and is in various collections. The bulk of the manuscript, some 143 folios and 102 miniatures, are in the Chester Beatty Library, Dublin (L. Leach, Mughal and other Indian Paintings from the Chester Beatty Library, Dublin, London 1995, Vol.I, pp.21-74). Hence it is commonly referred to as the ‘Chester Beatty Tutinama’.
The manuscript was brought to France from India by General Jean-François Allard (1785-1839) who had been in the service of Sikh ruler, Maharaja Ranjit Singh. It was purchased by Felix Feuillet (also known as Baron F.S. Feuillet de Conches), a collector of manuscripts, and was dispersed towards the end of the 19th century when the Baron’s collection was dissolved. Other folios are now in The Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (68.8.47), the Keir Collection, The Victoria and Albert Museum, London (IS.40-1966), the National Museum, New Delhi, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (M.81.8.6) and the David Collection, Copenhagen (inv.no 3⁄1999) to name a few. A folio from the same manuscript was recently sold in these Rooms, 28 October 2021, lot 41.