AN ALBUM PAGE WITH A PORTRAIT OF A LADY AND A CALLIGRAPHIC PANEL

NORTH INDIA, RAJASTHAN, 18TH AND 19TH CENTURY, THE CALLIGRAPHY SIGNED MUHAMMAD

Details

AN ALBUM PAGE WITH A PORTRAIT OF A LADY AND A CALLIGRAPHIC PANEL
NORTH INDIA, RAJASTHAN, 18TH AND 19TH CENTURY, THE CALLIGRAPHY SIGNED MUHAMMAD
Opaque and transparent pigments and ink heightened with gold on card, one side with a line of elegant nasta'liq script in black ink outlined in gold set in cloud reserved against gold ground with black scrolling vine, signed in lower left-hand corner, verso with late Bundi-style portrait of a woman with an orange veil wearing large jewels, recto and verso set with gilt and polychrome borders, slightly trimmed
Folio 7 7/8 x 11 1/8in. (20 x 28.2cm.)

Provenance

Friedrich Sarre, Berlin, to his daughter from whom acquired by the present owner

Literature

Ernst Kühnel, Islamische Schriftkunst, Berlin 1942, revised edition Berlin 1972, new edition Graz 1986, pl.71

Lot Essay

The calligraphic panel reads, fazl-e ilahi shod, 'There was Divine Grace'. In a smaller hand is written, harrarahu Muhammad, 'Muhammad copied it'. The calligraphic side of this album leaf bears close resemblance to one in the Pierpont Morgan Library that is in the Read Album - acquired by the Pierpont Morgan Library in 1911 from the English collector-curator Charles Hercules Read (Barbara Schmitz, Islamic and Indian Manuscripts and Paintings in the Pierpont Morgan Library, New York, 1997, no.50, fig.235, p.170).

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