AN ALBUM PAGE WITH A SAFAVID DRAWING AND BORDERS FROM AN ALBUM MADE FOR EMPEROR SHAH JAHAN, PERSIA AND INDIA, CIRCA 1625-50 AD

This album page has been assembled using the exquisite floral borders from one of the well-known albums made for the Mughal Emperor Shah Jahan. The albums made for Shah Jahan and his father Jahangir in the first half of the 17th century were notable for the extremely high quality of the border decoration, and the leading artists of the royal atelier were employed to decorate them.

The drawing of an old man with a grey beard is executed in the Safavid style of Isfahan of circa 1620-40, approximately contemporaneous with the production of the royal albums of Shah Jahan. However, it is probably not the original work intended for this album page. More likely, it was inserted into these borders, which may have lost their original central panel, sometime in the early 20th century, when many album leaves were disassembled and re-assembled. The drawing bears a later and fictitious attribution to the Mughal artist Farukh Beg.