A QUATRAIN OF AWHADI: A PAGE OF CALLIGRAPHY FROM AN ALBUM MADE FOR SULTAN HUSAYN KHAN SHAMLU, DAR AL-SULTANEH, HERAT, PERSIA, 1007 AH/1598-9 AD

Page from an album, the main panel with four lines of poetry written diagonally in nasta'liq script in black ink on cream paper decorated with a pink stencilled design of a qilin amidst floral scrolls, border panels of further lines of calligraphy in a smaller nasta'liq hand in black ink on cream paper, small triangular and rectangular panels of illumination, borders of blue paper with stencilled designs of animals and birds amongst flowers and trees, reverse with a label of Kirkor Minassian, New York, and another of the Persian Exhibition, New York, 1940 inscribed "MK-40" 

Kirkor Minassian, New York, 1930s-40s
Adrienne Minassian, New York, 1955

Exhibition of Persian Art, The Iranian Institute, New York,1940

Ackermann 1940, p.45, A

This page and the following five lots all originate from an album of calligraphy prepared for Sultan Husayn Khan Shamlu, at Herat in 1007 (1598-99). The album was dispersed at least by 1940 since this lot and several others were exhibited as single folios in the Exhibition of Persian Art at the Iranian Institute in New York in 1940, organised by a team headed by Arthur Upham Pope. The present lot was lent to the exhibition by Kirkor Minassian, and the following four lots were also owned by him. The present lot and lot 54 record that they were copied at the Dar al-Sultaneh, Herat, but without a date and patron, whereas lot 53 (and others from the same album) record that the album was made in the kitabkhaneh of the ruler of the province of Khurasan, Husayn Khan Shamlu (lot 53 and Ackerman 1940, p.45, A; Christie's, London, 8 April 2008, lots 182, 184). A number of these folios, formerly in the Jean Pozzi Collection, are in the Musée d'art et d'histoire, Geneva. Four folios from the same album were sold at Christie's, London, 8 April 2008, lots 182-185.

Another album, now known as the Read Album (mostly in the Pierpont Morgan Library, New York) was made for the same patron at around the same time. However, it appears to be a separate album from the present one, indicating that Husayn Khan Shamlu was a bibliophilic patron of some enthusiasm (see lot 44 in this sale, and Schmitz 1997, no.50, pp.111-173)