*A QAJAR MURAQQA' PAGE: TWO LADIES WITH A BAGPIPE

PROPERTY FROM AN IMPORTANT EUROPEAN PRIVATE COLLECTION
Iran, 19th century

Gold, opaque pigments, ink and pencil on paper, the vertical album page a whimsical cut-and-paste composition with an oval portrait cartouche to the centre with two European-looking ladies playing a bagpipe, the drawing signed Raqam-e 'Ali Quli at the top, framed within a typical opening folio, from a religious manuscript or carpet page, above the drawing the bismillah in a cusped cartouche on blue ground with golden trellis, all around the portrait cartouche vegetal motifs, arabesques and Chinese cloud bands, framed within further decorative borders with stylised cobalt blue palmettes, rosette sprays, cusped cartouches and fretwork bands, mounted on a white cardboard frame, 35.8cm x 23.2cm including the mount.