A fine and rare miniature presentation portrait of Sultan Murad V ibn Abdulmecid (reigned 1876), signed on the right edge by the Armenian artist J. ManaSs, Turkey, dated on the reverse A.H.1311/A.D.1893

mixed media on card or ivory, the sitter shown bust-length looking to one side wearing a dark jacket with high collar and a fez, in an oval composition, superb gilt-bronze frame with elaborate floral and foliate swags in the spandrels and around the top and sides with a cartouche at the apex engraved with monogram M.P. surmounted by the khedival crown of Egypt

in good condition, minor patination to frame, small abrasions to extremities of left edge of portrait, as viewed
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This refined and sensitive portrait is a posthumous study, most probably done after a photograph, by the Armenian artist Joseph Mana[s]s (1835-1916) who together with his brother Sebuh Manas (1816-89) served as court painter to the Ottoman Sultans Abdulaziz (1861-76), Murad V (1876) and Abdulhamid II (1876-1909).  Further imperial Ottoman portraits by Josef Manas are in the Topkapi Sarayi Muzesi, including similar oval portraits of Sultan Abdulmecid, dated 1888 (inv. no. 17/223) and Sultan Abdulaziz, c.1892 (inv. no.17/133 and 17/236) (The Sultan's Portrait: Picturing the House of Osman, Istanbul 2000, no.157, p.511; and nos. 168, p.524).

The use of the khedival crown of Egypt on the elaborate gilt-bronze frame strongly suggests that this was at one time in the palace collections in Cairo and may have been commissioned as a gift.