TWO ALBUM (MURAQQA') PAGES WITH GILT FLORAL MOTIFS
PROPERTY FROM AN IMPORTANT EUROPEAN PRIVATE COLLECTION
Qajar Iran, first half 19th century

Opaque pigments, ink, and gold on paper mounted on blueish-green album cardboards, each horizontal composition depicting a floral study in gold against a black ground, one with the classical topos of the rose and the nightingale (gol-o-bolbol) and the latter with tulips and poppies, set within concentric decorative borders in cream, pink, and with gold and polychrome floral and vegetal sprays, the back of each album page marked with black ink Persian numerals (23 and 44), several ownership stamps, mostly faded, the most legible one reading Ali Mohammad Seyyed Mohammad (?) and the date 12... against a floral ground, and a later note by the owner in blue pen reading 'from Nasir al-Din Shah period, the price for the pair 1000 tuman', each page 27.6cm x 18.5cm.