A lacquer mirror case decorated with three Ragamala subjects, Mughal, circa 17th century or later

signed and dated in gold, in nasta'liq script: 'kamtarin [the least (of men)] Manohar 1003 [AH/1594-95 AD]'. This would appear to be a later addition, so as to enhance the three paintings

Geoffrey Dyne, Fleet, Hampshire
Private Collection, London
Acquired in 2007

N. Haider Haykel in Crill-Stronge-Topsfield 2004, p.186, (2), footnote 23

The Ragamala subjects depicted here are: on the recto of the mirror cover (bearing the erroneous signature and date), Dipaka Raga, a prince with a flame burning at the front of his turban sits on a small couch caressing a girl; on the verso of the cover, Patmanjari Ragini, a seated lady lonesome for her absent lover is consoled by the singing of her confidante; and on the verso of the mirror, Malkos Raga, a prince sits on a throne holding pan while a girl stands by him with a fly-whisk. The three miniatures are comparable in style to the two series of Bikaner Ragamala paintings, circa 1650, in the British Library (Falk-Archer 1981, pp.254-256, nos.505 i-xxiv & pp.527-531, reprs.). For a full discussion of seventeenth-century Mughal lacquer boxes and mirrorcases, see N. Haidar Haykel in Crill-Stronge-Topsfield, 2004, pp.176-189. For five other works bearing the signature ‘Manohar’, see ibid., p.186 (for the last of these, see Sotheby’s, London, 13 October 2004, lot 18); and another, Gierlichs-Hagedorn 2004, col.fig.1.