A MARBLED-PAPER DRAWING OF A LION OR QILIN, INDIA OR PERSIA, 17TH-18TH CENTURY

This is an interesting and rare example of a marbled drawing. F.R Martin believed the tradition of marbling to have originated in Tabriz in the 15th century, and had spread to Turkey. In the early 20th century several marbled works were published by Martin and Coomaraswamy and catalogued as Turkish (Martin 1912, pl.231, Coomaraswamy 1929, pl.LXV). In 1983 Mark Zebrowski re-attributed many of these marbled designs to Bijapur in the Deccan (Zebrowski 1983, pp.135-138). At the same time Christopher Weimann published research describing a more widespread use of marbling in India (see Weimann 1983, pp.134-7, 162-4). The present folio has an image in reserve against the marbled ground of a lion or qilin, a cypress tree and a small quadruped. These are in a style similar to other works attributed to the Deccan. However, the verso of the folio has verses in Persian in a shikasteh script more often associated with Iran. For an important Deccani example of this tradition and a longer discussion of the topic, see lot 114 in this sale.