Highly decorative leaf from a secular work of Persian poetry.

170 x 110 mm. Leaf from a manuscript, written in two columns in Persian nasta’liq in black ink on cream paper (verso) 14 lines, with richly ornamented floral border, and gold leaf rules, (verso) ornamental title page divided into two quadrilobes separated by a floral border.

The manuscript was probably made in India in the in the eighteenth or nineteenth centuries when Persian poetic volumes of this type were popular. The pink, blue, orange and gold palette of the decoration, the use of richly ornamented floral borders, and polychrome and gold rules are typical of the Kashmiri style, which is closely related to the art of Persian illumination. Such illumination appears frequently in secular poetic manuscripts, while the distinctive rose forms on the main sheet of illumination also appear in Kashmiri lacquer painting as well as the art of Qajar Iran.

Provenance
(1) Private Collection, USA

We thank Senior Consultant Sandra Hindman and Peter Bovenmyer for their assistance in preparing this sale.