SAFAVID IRAN AND MUGHAL INDIA, ONE SIDE SIGNED MUHAMMAD ISMA'IL QUMI AND DATED AH 1102/1690-91 AD

Details

AN ILLUSTRATED ALBUM PAGE
SAFAVID IRAN AND MUGHAL INDIA, ONE SIDE SIGNED MUHAMMAD ISMA'IL QUMI AND DATED AH 1102/1690-91 AD
Opaque pigments heightened with gold on paper, recto with a Safavid tinted drawing of a quail perched on a rocky outcrop, losses to the upper left hand corner and a repaired tear to the upper right hand corner, verso with a naturalistic branch with pink blossoms reserved against a brown background, signed and dated along the lower margin, both set within wide gold decorated margins and polychrome borders with further gold decoration, mounted on card
Recto drawing 3¾ x 4¾in. (9.3 x 12.1cm.); verso painting 6¼ x 3 3/8in. (15.8 x 8.4cm.); folio 14¾ x 9¾in. (37.3 x 24.6cm.)

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Lot Essay

The colourful branch of plum blossom which decorates one side of this album page is very closely related to a slightly paler composition signed by the Persian artist Muhammad Zaman and dated to circa 1693 (Yahya Zoka and Stuart Cary Welch, Persian and Mughal Miniatures: The life and Times of Muhammad Zaman, Tehran, 1994). The name of our artist - Qumi- would suggest that he is of Persian origin and perhaps trained as an artist in Iran. The use of mango leaf yellow pigment however confirms that this was painted in India.

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