A CONCERTINA MURAQQA' ALBUM OF CALLIGRAPHY AND DRAWINGS
PROPERTY FROM AN IMPORTANT EUROPEAN PRIVATE COLLECTION
Iran and India, 19th century

Comprising a group of ten folios, mounted on coloured cards, one with gold vegetal decoration in the border, arranged to make five congruous pairs: two panels of Persian poetry in nasta’liq calligraphy in chalipa format; two fine lacquered calligraphic panels, one an extract from Book 8 of Sa’di’s Gulistan, signed and dated Mohammad Hossein Tehrani 1269 AH (1852), the other a découpage panel of poetry with marginal illumination; a pair of Mughal Indian tinted drawings, one of ‘The Daughter of the King of Franks listening to Tanbur music’, and one of Shams Tabrizi and the parable of the fish reaching the sun; two folios of Arabic manuscript in naskh script from prayers offered to the prophet; and two panels of shikasteh nasta’liq, one in mashq format, the other on two horizontal lines, later assemblage and binding in gold-stamped red leather, two folios stamped on the reverse ‘Library stamp Haji Mohtashem ul Saltaneh 1238 AH (1823)’, the page 27.2cm x 18.3cm.