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Lot Essay
The meticulously-drawn borders of this folio, which combine fine gold stencilling with colour pigment, indicate that they come from a Mughal Imperial album. This album was later owned by the businessman A. C. Ardeshir, a Parsi from Mumbai who assembled his collection in the 1920s and 1930s. Folios from this album were sold Sotheby’s London, 10 July 1973, lots 1-6 and 8-41. Some of those folios are now in major institutions, such as three in the Museum Reitberg, Zurich (acc.nos.2015.105; 2021.418; RCD 7).
The floral borders on the calligraphic side of our folio closely resemble the borders on the Late Shah Jahan Album. Examples illustrated by Elaine Wright demonstrate an identical arrangement and proportion of flowers – with three skinny stems along the spine, and five running along the upper and lower margins – as well as the inclusion of Chinese-style red wispy clouds between the flowers (Wright 2008, pp.367-9, cat.55b). Though such floral borders are commonly encountered on Mughal albums like this, the margins of the recto are far more unusual. Only on two other folios – lots 6 and 35 in the 1973 sale – were the animals in the margin painted all in gold rather than in colour. The presence of a gold simurgh in the margin is very rare within such borders: their presence, together with the heavier use of gold, is reminiscent of the borders of the 1619 Farhang-i Jahangiri, for instance a folio in the Library of Congress, Washington D.C. (acc.no.2019714646). A Shahnama prepared for Jahangir around 1610 was similarly decorated, with a folio in the Chester Beatty Library also featuring simurgh in the margin (acc.no.CBL In 11A.34.1a, published Wright 2008, cat.18). Such intertextuality, with ‘references’ to one album or manuscript appearing in another, is typical of the highly literate courtly milieu which these paintings inhabited.
The attribution of the painting to Reza Abbasi in the border below the painting is unlikely, with the painting not being in his usual style, and not being considered by Sheila Canby as one of his works. However, the painting does bear some resemblance to other Reza paintings: a painting dated to AH 995 / 1587 AD in the Harvard Art Museum, Cambridge MA, also shows a turbaned youth holding an orange in one hand and clutching his gown in the other (Canby 1996, cat.1). Another signed painting published in her book, in the collection of the Musée de Louvre shows a figure who holds a bottle and stands in an attitude more reminiscent of ours (Canby, 1996, cat. 110). Perhaps the closest parallel is found not in a single figure but a group scene, in which a similar young man stands deferentially to one side, also holding an orange or pomegranate in one hand (Canby, 1996, cat.55 left). Whoever left the note was correct to identify a composition reminiscent of Reza’s work, even if this is not by his hand.
The calligraphy on the reverse is signed in the intercolumnar division li-raqimihi - 'by its calligrapher'. Mir Ali is known to have composed the text for many of his calligraphic compositions: several of the calligraphic folios in the Shah Jahan Album, for instance, were signed by Mir Ali in the capacity of a poet, not a calligrapher (Welch, 1987, figs.10, 12, 15, 19, 22).
The floral borders on the calligraphic side of our folio closely resemble the borders on the Late Shah Jahan Album. Examples illustrated by Elaine Wright demonstrate an identical arrangement and proportion of flowers – with three skinny stems along the spine, and five running along the upper and lower margins – as well as the inclusion of Chinese-style red wispy clouds between the flowers (Wright 2008, pp.367-9, cat.55b). Though such floral borders are commonly encountered on Mughal albums like this, the margins of the recto are far more unusual. Only on two other folios – lots 6 and 35 in the 1973 sale – were the animals in the margin painted all in gold rather than in colour. The presence of a gold simurgh in the margin is very rare within such borders: their presence, together with the heavier use of gold, is reminiscent of the borders of the 1619 Farhang-i Jahangiri, for instance a folio in the Library of Congress, Washington D.C. (acc.no.2019714646). A Shahnama prepared for Jahangir around 1610 was similarly decorated, with a folio in the Chester Beatty Library also featuring simurgh in the margin (acc.no.CBL In 11A.34.1a, published Wright 2008, cat.18). Such intertextuality, with ‘references’ to one album or manuscript appearing in another, is typical of the highly literate courtly milieu which these paintings inhabited.
The attribution of the painting to Reza Abbasi in the border below the painting is unlikely, with the painting not being in his usual style, and not being considered by Sheila Canby as one of his works. However, the painting does bear some resemblance to other Reza paintings: a painting dated to AH 995 / 1587 AD in the Harvard Art Museum, Cambridge MA, also shows a turbaned youth holding an orange in one hand and clutching his gown in the other (Canby 1996, cat.1). Another signed painting published in her book, in the collection of the Musée de Louvre shows a figure who holds a bottle and stands in an attitude more reminiscent of ours (Canby, 1996, cat. 110). Perhaps the closest parallel is found not in a single figure but a group scene, in which a similar young man stands deferentially to one side, also holding an orange or pomegranate in one hand (Canby, 1996, cat.55 left). Whoever left the note was correct to identify a composition reminiscent of Reza’s work, even if this is not by his hand.
The calligraphy on the reverse is signed in the intercolumnar division li-raqimihi - 'by its calligrapher'. Mir Ali is known to have composed the text for many of his calligraphic compositions: several of the calligraphic folios in the Shah Jahan Album, for instance, were signed by Mir Ali in the capacity of a poet, not a calligrapher (Welch, 1987, figs.10, 12, 15, 19, 22).