THE PROPERTY OF THE LATE THE RT. HON. LORD AMERY
SOLD BY ORDER OF THE EXECUTORS
The Amery Collection was formed in the first half of the 20th century by two Amery brothers, whose father had worked for the Indian Forestry Service. Major Harold Amery began the collection while he was stationed as Director of the Intelligence Service in Egypt and the Sudan between 1900 and 1914 before being killed in the Great War. His brother, the Rt.Hon. Leopold Amery, a fellow of All Souls and Balliol, Oxford, and Secretary of State for India during the Second World War, then continued the collection and it became the largest and most extensive of its kind.
After the war the paintings, both large and small, hung in the rooms of the London family house. However in 1969 much of the collection, then in the possesion of the Rt.Hon. Julian Amery, was sold to Her Imperial Majesty Farah Pahlavi and returned to Persia. Following the revolution, the 63 classic 18th and 19th century Qajar oil paintings remained in Iran and became part of the State collection in the Nagarestan museum. These paintings are published in full in: Falk, S.J.: Qajar Paintings, London 1972.
The paintings and calligraphy sold here formed part of the same collection bought by the two Amery brothers in the first half of this century but were kept by the Amery family and continued to decorate the family house to the present day. Several can be seen flanking the large painting of Fath 'Ali Shah and above the mantlepiece in the photograph of the Amery family dining room (taken before the sale of the larger paintings).
A pair of illuminated frontispieces from a manuscript
Details
A pair of illuminated frontispieces from a manuscript
Persian on paper, each with a finely painted gold and polychrome illuminated heading including panels with the titles kitab sahiba and kitab fardiyat in white, with lines of small black nasta'liq in clouds on gold and floral painted ground, headings in white on illuminated panels, green, brown and gold margins between black rules, blue outer rule, mounted, framed and glazed, (negligible wear), Shiraz, second half 16th century - each 24.5 x 10.8cm.
See illustration for one (2)
Persian on paper, each with a finely painted gold and polychrome illuminated heading including panels with the titles kitab sahiba and kitab fardiyat in white, with lines of small black nasta'liq in clouds on gold and floral painted ground, headings in white on illuminated panels, green, brown and gold margins between black rules, blue outer rule, mounted, framed and glazed, (negligible wear), Shiraz, second half 16th century - each 24.5 x 10.8cm.
See illustration for one (2)