* THREE QAJAR WATERCOLOURS WITH COMMON DAILY LIFE SCENES
PROPERTY OF AN IMPORTANT PRIVATE EUROPEAN COLLECTOR
Iran, mid to late 19th century

Opaque pigments, white wash, pen and ink on paper, three depictions catching moments of common people’s everyday life, comprising a hat-maker seated at a low table sewing a black astrakhan-fur hat, flanked by stretched leather fragments on nearby moulds and a lit qalyan (water pipe), felt hats on the shelves to his side, within green and silver rulings, laid on cardboard, 18cm x 14cm, 25cm x 23cm including the support; a doctor visiting a bed-ridden patient, surrounded by anxious relatives, inscribed Abulhassan Naqqashbashi Ghaffari, 12cm x 13cm, 19cm x 23.5cm including the support; and another composition by the same hand and bearing the same inscription, with a gentleman receiving a visitor across a sash divide, a manservant having already offered water in a basin taking tentative steps away without turning his back to the visitor, within blue and gold rules, laid on cardboard, 12cm x 12.5cm, 22cm x 27cm including the support.