A MURAQQA' ALBUM PAGE WITH FLORAL DÉCOUPAGE
PROPERTY FROM AN IMPORTANT EUROPEAN PRIVATE COLLECTION
Iran, late 19th century

Ink, pencil and opaque pigments heightened with gold on paper, the vertical composition presenting a découpaged purple iris flower pasted against a plain light green background, surrounded by cut-out leafy floral sprays with a variety of colourful flowers reminiscent in style, technique and design of some of the borders with découpage patterns featuring in the now-dispersed Nasir Al-Din Shah Album, believed to have been produced in 1888 to mark the 40th anniversary of his accession to the throne, framed within a light blue concentric border with gilt rosettes, mounted, glazed and framed, 38cm x 28.5cm including the frame.

A group of découpage folios and another of album borders ascribed to the celebrated Nasir Al-Din Shah Album and presenting an analogous decoration with colourful floral sprays were successfully sold in these Rooms, 22 July 2020, lots 111 and 112. This album page does not match the quality, fineness and design complexity of those folios and borders, but it certainly aims at repeating some of their patterns, proving that the album and its pages, with their whimsical style and use of bold colours, had a huge resonance in the pictorial arts of the late Qajar period.