Extent: fols. 297; paper; illuminations; 382 x 242 (262 x 140) mm
Note:
Layout: 25 lines per page, with written area divided to four columns by pairs of gold rules. Script: Nastaʻlīq ; elegant hand in a thin line. Decoration: Illuminated headpiece (ʻunwān / sarlawḥ) at opening of first section. 24 paintings in opaque pigments heightened with gold and silver, opening folio with gold and polychrome illustrated headpiece surmounting 12 lines of text; Decoration: one similarly illuminated tazhib within the text; three unfinished spaces left for further illumination. Rubrications in red. Binding: Black shagreen with gold and polychrome stamped decoration and onlays, red morocco doublures with gilt and stamped central medallions. One chapter with colophon dated the middle jumada al-awwal AH 1071, final triangular colophon dated of rajab AH 1071 and with the signature of scribe Muhammad Husain ibn Ali. Support: paper, lightly burnished, cream to beige in color ; some staining ; repairs (fills). Many repairs to short tears. Some leaves remargined, not affecting text or paintings. Smudging to a few paintings. Most recent conservation performed by Helen Loveday circa 2016. Provenance: Inscription in Arabic at bottom right of colophon: "Owner, by merit, is Muhammad Mahdi Gudarzi, son of the late, may he be forgiven, Kalbaali, in the first ten of the month of Rajab of 116[?]. [Final character illegible: this decade corresponds to CE 1747-1757] Provenance: Qajar-era seals of several former owners present on first and final leaves. Provenance: Sold at Christie's Art of the Islamic and Indian Worlds, 20th October 2016, lot 41. Property of a private collection in Italy, 1965-2016. Provenance: Purchased from Sam Fogg on the William Edward Archer Fund, October 2021. A few marginal annotations present in a later hand. Many paintings are signed Riza Abbasi. Abbasi died in 1635, suggesting that these paintings are copies of lost originals or, more likely, by a student of his.
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