A VARIED GROUP OF FOUR LACQUERED PAPIER-MÂCHÉ BOOKBINDINGS AND A SINGLE LOOSE BOOK COVER
PROPERTY FROM AN IMPORTANT EUROPEAN PRIVATE COLLECTION
Qajar Iran and Kashmir, Northern India, 19th century

Each of rectangular shape but different in size, each panel lacquered, polychrome-painted and heightened in gold, the four pairs of double bookbindings depicting on the exterior a variation of the gol-o-bolbol motif with lively birds and butterflies perched on fully blossomed flower heads and stems including roses, tulips, narcissi, hyacinths, irises, and prunus blossoms, some bindings also featuring hazelnuts, the interior with polychrome-painted narcissi on red ground or gilt vine trellis with grape bunches and foliage, the largest 30cm x 17cm, the smallest 20cm x 12cm; and a single loose lacquered book cover decorated on the front with another gol-o-bolbol composition and on the interior with a slender lady dressed in Indo-Persian fashion, holding a cup in one hand and a parrot in the other, against a golden landscape with prunus blossoms and lush floral sprays, 31cm x 20cm.