MUGHAL INDIA, EARLY 18TH CENTURY

Details

A MUGHAL NOBLE
MUGHAL INDIA, EARLY 18TH CENTURY
Opaque pigments on paper set within gold rules, an inner border of plain, gold-speckled paper and Qajar wider outer border with animal and foliate designs, the margins of gold-speckled paper repurposed from a Qur'an manuscript, with an illuminated recitation marker, the verso plain

Painting 7 x 3 ¾in. (17.8 x 9.5cm.); folio 13 1/8 x 9 ¼in. (33.5 x 23.5cm.)

Provenance

Property of R.S. Greenshields, sold Sotheby's London, 10 February 1936, lot 103

Conditions of sale

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Lot Essay

The Sotheby's 1936 catalogue entry identifies the figure of this painting as Abu'l Baqa Amir Khan, Governor of Multan. However, an official of that name does not appear in the Mughal court histories. The portrait has been mounted within illuminated margins taken from a Qur'an. It seems the same Qur'an margins were used to mount an illustration from the 'First' Baburnama now in the Metropolitan Museum of Art (acc.no. 67.266.4).

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