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Lot Essay
The attribution of these striking pink folios to Spain is based primarily on the use of paper. In North Africa, parchment remained the preferred material for the writing of Qur'ans into the 19th century. Spain, however, had been manufacturing and using high quality paper for manuscripts of all kinds for some time. Manuscripts like this one, on pink dyed paper are believed to have been produced in Jativa, near Valencia, the site of the earliest documented paper mill in Spain (Marcus Fraser and William Kwiatkowski, Ink and Gold: Islamic Calligraphy, Berlin-London, 2006, p.64).
The manuscript is notable for the luxuriant use of pink paper, and for the free but elegant manner in which the script is copied, with the terminals of the letters sweeping over the page, in contrast to the very precise way in which the vocalisation and illumination is handled.
A number of folios from this manuscript are in public collections. Others have appeared at auction. 215 folios, formerly in the collection of Maréchal Lyautey were sold at the Hotel Georges V, Paris, 30 October 1975, lot 488. They later appeared at Sotheby's, 14 April 1976, lot 247. Other leaves from this manuscript have since sold in these Rooms, including 16 October 2001, lots 3 and 4, 23 April 2002, lot 7, 6 October 2009, lot 41, and most recently a folio and a bifolio, 26 April 2012, lots 135 and 136.
The manuscript is notable for the luxuriant use of pink paper, and for the free but elegant manner in which the script is copied, with the terminals of the letters sweeping over the page, in contrast to the very precise way in which the vocalisation and illumination is handled.
A number of folios from this manuscript are in public collections. Others have appeared at auction. 215 folios, formerly in the collection of Maréchal Lyautey were sold at the Hotel Georges V, Paris, 30 October 1975, lot 488. They later appeared at Sotheby's, 14 April 1976, lot 247. Other leaves from this manuscript have since sold in these Rooms, including 16 October 2001, lots 3 and 4, 23 April 2002, lot 7, 6 October 2009, lot 41, and most recently a folio and a bifolio, 26 April 2012, lots 135 and 136.