AN INDIAN ALBUM PAGE: A STANDING PORTRAIT OF A NAWAB AND A DUTCH ENGRAVING AFTER CARRACCI
Mughal India, 18th century and later

Opaque pigments and ink heightened with gold on paper, the front with a vertical composition depicting a standing nobleman dressed in typical Mughal attire with a long gold-embroidered yellow robe, with a big black dhal shield and tulwar sword on the side, holding a flower blossom in his hand, pasted onto a 19th-century album page with concentric borders in pink and greenish-grey, a later-added note in black ink nasta'liq script underneath the painting reading Nawab Ka Makar Khan, the painting 14.6cm x 9.2cm; and the reverse featuring the reproduction by Cornelis II Visscher (1629 - 1658), a Dutch Golden Age engraver, of a famous late 16th-century Italian engraving by Agostino Carracci (1557 - 1602), Ogni Cosa Vince L'Oro (Gold wins it All), set within black rules, and concentric borders with gold vegetal meanders on cream and plain brick-red grounds, the engraving 21.6cm x 16cm, mounted on a white cardboard frame, 40cm x 30cm including the frame.