NINE FOLIOS FROM AN ILLUSTRATED SHAHNAMA (BOOKS OF KINGS)

DELHI SCHOOL, NORTH INDIA, CIRCA 1840-50

Details

NINE FOLIOS FROM AN ILLUSTRATED SHAHNAMA (BOOKS OF KINGS)
DELHI SCHOOL, NORTH INDIA, CIRCA 1840-50
Comprising seven illustrated folios and two folios of text, each with finely illuminated margins with blue and gold medallions amidst gold foliage, the text in black nasta'liq script arranged in four columns between red and black double divisions, each line in cloud on gold ground, the fine illustrations painted in two distinct styles, the first in the early Mughal style, the second in the late 18th/early 19th century Kashmiri style, in very good condition, each in individual folder
Folio 11 x 6¼in. (28 x 16cm.) (9)

If you wish to view the condition report of this lot, please sign in to your account.

View condition report

Lot Essay

Some of the illustrations in this lot, as well as the finely illuminated margins recall the work of Ghulam 'Ali Khan and his studio whilst at the court of Alwar. It is there that the Mughal artist from Delhi produced an ambitious Gulistan for Raja Banni Singh, some time between 1840 and 1853 (William Dalrymple and Yuthika Sharma, Princes and Painters in Mughal Delhi, 1707-1857, London, 2012, fig.9,10,12, pp.46-19). The Shahnama from which these folios originate is an illustration of the taste for dynastic histories and classical Persian works under the reign of the last Mughal emperor, Bahadur Shah.

More from Arts & Textiles of the Islamic & Indian Worlds

View All