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Lot Essay
The artist who signed the binding of this manuscript, Muhammad Hadi, could well be the famous illuminator who worked on the St Petersburg Album.
Although little is known of the life and work of Muhammad Hadi, research done by B.W. Robinson confirms that he was seen in Shiraz on the 10th September 1821 by the English traveller Claudius Rich who described him as a very old man who no longer practiced his art (B.W. Robinson, Persian Miniatures from Collections in the British Isles, 1967, cat.no.94, p.78). It is worth mentioning that he also described him as amongst "the most distinguished artists in Persia passionately fond of flowers" and that it was "almost impossible to procure a specimen of his pencil. They are bought up at any price by the Persians" (Robinson, op.cit., p.78). Muhammad Hadi would indeed have been over ninety years old on Rich's sighting, and relatively young when he undertook the commission for this binding (Francesca von Habsburg et al, The St. Petersburg Muraqqa', Lugano, 1996, p.27). Diba records him as an illuminator who specialized in floral designs. He is also known to have worked on a number of other works including a qalamadan which was formerly in the Niyavaran Palace Collection and which is dated AH 1148/1735-36 AD and many single leaves of narcissus, carnations and roses (Layla S. Diba, Persian Painting in the Eighteenth Century, Muqarnas, Vol. VI, p.154).
Although little is known of the life and work of Muhammad Hadi, research done by B.W. Robinson confirms that he was seen in Shiraz on the 10th September 1821 by the English traveller Claudius Rich who described him as a very old man who no longer practiced his art (B.W. Robinson, Persian Miniatures from Collections in the British Isles, 1967, cat.no.94, p.78). It is worth mentioning that he also described him as amongst "the most distinguished artists in Persia passionately fond of flowers" and that it was "almost impossible to procure a specimen of his pencil. They are bought up at any price by the Persians" (Robinson, op.cit., p.78). Muhammad Hadi would indeed have been over ninety years old on Rich's sighting, and relatively young when he undertook the commission for this binding (Francesca von Habsburg et al, The St. Petersburg Muraqqa', Lugano, 1996, p.27). Diba records him as an illuminator who specialized in floral designs. He is also known to have worked on a number of other works including a qalamadan which was formerly in the Niyavaran Palace Collection and which is dated AH 1148/1735-36 AD and many single leaves of narcissus, carnations and roses (Layla S. Diba, Persian Painting in the Eighteenth Century, Muqarnas, Vol. VI, p.154).