THE SHAKERINE COLLECTION: Calligraphy in Qur’ans and other Manuscripts

THE SHAKERINE COLLECTION: Calligraphy in Qur’ans and other Manuscripts

View full screen - View 1 of Lot 49. AN ILLUMINATED MINIATURE QUR’AN IN FITTED LACQUER BOX, COPIED BY MUHAMMAD ‘ALI, PERSIA, QAJAR, DATED 1284 AH/1867-68 AD.

AN ILLUMINATED MINIATURE QUR’AN IN FITTED LACQUER BOX, COPIED BY MUHAMMAD ‘ALI, PERSIA, QAJAR, DATED 1284 AH/1867-68 AD

Auction Closed

October 23, 11:03 AM GMT

Estimate

4,000 - 6,000 GBP

Lot Details

Description

AN ILLUMINATED MINIATURE QUR’AN IN FITTED LACQUER BOX, COPIED BY MUHAMMAD ‘ALI, PERSIA, QAJAR, DATED 1284 AH/1867-68 AD


Arabic manuscript on paper, 323 leaves plus 4 fly-leaves, 17 lines to the page, written in ghubar in black ink, ruled in black and gold, verses separated by gold dots, surah headings in red rounded cursive against a gold ground within cartouches, gold and polychrome verse markers in the margins, f.1b and f.2a with a double-page spread of illumination consisting of a central lobed panel with red ghubar against a gold ground, f.2b and f.3a with an illuminated double page, f.322b and f.323a with a finispiece bifolium consisting of a central lobed panel with red ghubar against a gold ground, in lacquer binding decorated with flowers, with fitted box


text panel: 5.3 by 3cm.

leaf: 6.9 by 4.1cm.

Christie’s London, 16 June 1987, lot 88.

N. Safwat, A Collector’s Eye. Islamic calligraphy in Qur’ans and other manuscripts, London 2010, no.17, pp.88-89.

This fine miniature Qur’an not only bears the name of the scribe and a date, but has the name of the commissioner, Shahzade Hishmet al-Dawlah Hamza Mirza.