Lot Essay
This miniature comes from the dispersed Stephens Shahnama, the bulk of which was in the collection of the Hagop Kevorkian Fund and sold at Sotheby's, 12 April 1976, lot 190. The Stephens Shahnama, which, prior to being partly dispersed, was exhibited in the International Exhibition of Persian Art in London 1931, is one of a group of four large scale Inju Shahnamas produced in Shiraz in the first half of the fourteenth century. The most famous of these is that produced in 1341 of which folios more frequently appear on the market (see for example one sold in these Rooms, 23 October 2007, lot 172). The other two are complete and are now in the Topkapi (dated 1330) and the Hermitage (dated 1333). Two folios from our manuscript are illustrated in Laurence Binyon et al., Persian Miniature Painting, New York, 1971, no. 22, pl. XIII, p. 43, and the argument is there convincingly made that this is in fact the earliest of the four manuscripts.