TWO TINTED PORTRAIT SKETCHES OF A QAJAR YOUTH AND A QAJAR LADY
PROPERTY FROM AN IMPORTANT EUROPEAN PRIVATE COLLECTION
Qajar Iran, dated 1315 AH (1897) and 1316 AH (1898), signed Muhammad Ali Zavieh

Ink, pencil, opaque pigments and white wash on laid paper, comprising a vertical portrait sketch of a Qajar youth, possibly a member of the court or a young aristocrat, wearing a tall black Astrakhan fur kaj kolah headdress and a diamond-studded aigrette in the shape of a heron's feather, holding a pink rose in his hand, signed and dated on the lower right corner, mounted, glazed and in a khatamkari frame with typical hexagonal roundels filled with six-pointed stars, 31.5cm x 25.5cm including the frame; and an almost identical vertical portrait sketch of a Qajar lady, wearing diamond-encrusted bazubands, aigrette and cap, signed and dated on the lower left corner, mounted, glazed and in a khatamkari frame with typical hexagonal roundels filled with six-pointed stars, 32.5cm x 26.5cm including the frame.