QAJAR IRAN, LATE 19TH CENTURY

These twenty-four folios come from a luxury manuscript that was produced towards the end of the 19th century. The scale of the illustrations, the finesse with which they are painted, the profuse use of gold point to a princely commission. The artist looked back at earlier illustrated manuscripts, drawing inspiration from Timurid and Safavid miniature painting. The subdued use of colour with illustrations resembling grisaille is in vogue during the Qajar period. A copy of Nishat's Ganjineh, sold at Christie's South Kensington on the 11th of April 2014, lot 313, was illustrated with paintings that are closely related in style to the present examples.