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Lot Essay
Increased diplomatic exchange between the Timurid and Ming courts after about 1424 led to a fashion for using Chinese papers in Timurid manuscripts, particularly coloured papers decorated with gold sprinkling. A range of colours including blues, pinks, lavenders, yellows and greens became available and were most commonly used in poetry manuscripts. The paper used for these folios is noticeably heavy and highly polished. Some pages are decorated in delicate gold with characteristically Chinese motifs such as naturalistic details of plants.
A Qur'an on Chinese coloured paper from the Türk ve Islam Eserleri Muzesi, Istanbul (no. 41) are published in David J. Roxburgh, Turks: A Journey of a Thousand Years, Exhibition Catalogue, London, no. 178, pp. 228 and 421. The calligraphy of the Istanbul example is so close to that of the present that it seems probable that the two Qur'ans came out of the same workshop. Two further Qur'ans on similar paper are known, one in the Detroit Institute of Arts and the other in the Topkapi Saray Museum. Another Qur'an was sold at Sotheby's, 26 April 1995, lot 29.
A Qur'an on Chinese coloured paper from the Türk ve Islam Eserleri Muzesi, Istanbul (no. 41) are published in David J. Roxburgh, Turks: A Journey of a Thousand Years, Exhibition Catalogue, London, no. 178, pp. 228 and 421. The calligraphy of the Istanbul example is so close to that of the present that it seems probable that the two Qur'ans came out of the same workshop. Two further Qur'ans on similar paper are known, one in the Detroit Institute of Arts and the other in the Topkapi Saray Museum. Another Qur'an was sold at Sotheby's, 26 April 1995, lot 29.