FOUR ALBUM PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS OF INDIAN COURTLY LADIES
Provincial Late Mughal style, possibly Deccani School, 19th century; the borders late 19th - early 20th century

Opaque pigments heightened with gold on paper, comprising four vertical compositions depicting courtly ladies in a variety of poses and moods, including a heavily bejewelled lady in a pseudo-shalabhanjika pose, seated on the trunk of a tree, bending a branch, her duenna offering her a pomegranate, a clear allegory of fertility, procreation and femininity, 33.2cm x 23.5cm including the borders; two courtly ladies in conversation being served drinks in small cups by an attendant, a child playing in the lower left corner, 35cm x 23.8cm including the borders; a coy lady covering herself with her gold-dotted shawl, gazing at a sadhu holding a prayer bead necklace in his hand and smiling back at the lady, 34.7cm x 23cm including the borders; and a banquet scene, with two courtly ladies eating pandan leaves, the female attendants holding ewers to serve drinks and large lidded trays covering the food, 33.2cm x 23.4cm including the borders; each illustration framed within later polychrome-painted floral album page borders on cream cardboard, each recto marked in red pencil with the numeral 6,7,8, and 9 respectively.