PROBABLY HYDERABAD, DECCAN, INDIA, FIRST HALF 18TH CENTURY

Figural lacquer from the Deccan is extremely rare. Our binding relates to a lacquered jewel box in the Victoria & Albert Museum painted by the artist Rahim Deccani, and attributed to Golconda, last quarter of the 17th century (inv. 851-1889; Mark Zebrowski, Deccani Painting, London, 1983, nos 169-174, pp.202-03). The box painted by Rahim Deccani has an unusual depiction of a man with long curly hair in European dress playing a flute. This interest in other cultures is also illustrated on our binding with the depiction of a man in a large Ottoman-style turban holding a rose standing in a doorway on the left hand edge of the panel. The tall female figures wearing small floral pattern motif lenghas and cholis are very similar to Hyderabadi painting of the first half of the 18th century. For a painting attributed to Hyderabad of that period with female figures very similar to those found on our binding see Mark Zebrowski op.cit. no.226, p.253.