POSSIBLY ATTRIBUTABLE TO SULTAN MUHAMMAD NUR, HERAT CIRCA 1530, THE REVERSE SIGNED BY MUHAMMAD HUSAYN ZARRIN QALAM, MUGHAL INDIA, CIRCA 1600

Details

A CALLIGRAPHIC ALBUM LEAF
POSSIBLY ATTRIBUTABLE TO SULTAN MUHAMMAD NUR, HERAT CIRCA 1530, THE REVERSE SIGNED BY MUHAMMAD HUSAYN ZARRIN QALAM, MUGHAL INDIA, CIRCA 1600
Gouache heightened with gold on paper, with alternating lines of mounted inscription cartouches with white nasta'liq on teracotta ground and buff panels, divided by terecotta margins and gold rules, within a composite border which includes a series of cartouches of sky blue nasta'liq on pink ground and gold illumination surrounded by a surround of dark blue speckled paper and laid down within red, gold and blue margins with black rule on a buff page with gold animals against a landscape of rocks and foliage, verso with seven diagonal lines of elegant black nasta'liq on blue gold-sprinkled ground laid down on a pink border with gold floral illumination, similar margins, and mounted on a buff page with gold birds amongst flowers, signed by Muhammad Husayn [Zarrin Qalam]
Folio 14½ x 9 3/8in. (36.8 x 23.8cm.)

Special notice

No VAT will be charged on the hammer price, but VAT at 15% will be added to the buyer's premium which is invoiced on a VAT inclusive basis. Please note that the lots of Iranian origin are subject to U.S. trade restrictions which currently prohibit the import into the United States. Similar restrictions may apply in other countries.

Lot Essay

The calligraphy on this panel is possibly attributable to Sultan Muhammad Nur, who was active in Herat as a calligrapher from at least AH 905/1499-1500 AD to AH 943/1536 AD.

Dust Muhammad stresses Sultan Muhammad's special expertise in writing with coloured inks (ed. Jon Thompson and Sheila R. Canby, Hunt for Paradise: Court Arts of Safavid Iran 1501-1576, Italy, 2003, p. 52). Four calligraphic pages, also published in the Hunt for Paradise catalogue (Thompson and Canby, op. cit., Nos. 3.4-3.7, p.53), bear resemblance to the present piece, particularly in similarities in the colours used and the borders which they are set down within. Another similar example signed by Sultan Muhammad Nur can be found in David J. Roxburgh, The Persian Album 1400-1600, Yale, 2005, Fig. 139, p. 260. However, it should be borne in mind that calligraphers working in similar styles were also prevalent in Herat at the time and so there exists the possibility that this was executed by someone working in a very similar style.

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