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拍品专文
Shamsas like this announced the opening of a Mughal album, as they had introduced albums and Qur'an manuscripts on earlier manuscripts. A spectacular opening shamsa from a Shah Jahan album is in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (55.121.10.39), and another is in the National Museum of Asian Art, Washington D.C. (S1986.70). On both of those examples, the shamsa seems to have been painted by a Mughal artist directly onto an album folio, rather than being inserted into one as here. There is an illegible faded inscription to the centre of our shamsa. When this folio was sold in 1973, and the text perhaps slightly clearer, this was catalogued as 'an inscription of the Jahangir period'.
The borders of this page feature an arabesque of two intertwined vines. They are somewhat similar to the borders on at least one pair of facing folios in a Late Shah Jahan album, split between the National Museum of Asian Art (S1986.90) and Harvard University Arts Museums, Massachusetts (143.1983). Similar borders appear on other pages from the 'Brabourne-Ardeshir' album sold Sotheby's London, 10 July 1973: they are on the 'painting' side of lots 22 and 40; on the 'calligraphy' side of lots 2, 34, 37 (offered in this sale, lot 52); and on both sides of lot 31.
This folio is significant for understanding this album because it is inscribed in the upper left corner with the words 'Brabourne, 2/9/37'. This almost certainly refers to Michael Knatchbull, 5th Baron Brabourne (1895-1939). Brabourne was the Governor of Bombay between December 1933 and May 1937, and subsequently Governor of Bengal until his death in February 1939, serving as acting Viceroy during Lord Linlithgow's absence in 1938. His son John Knatchbull was the producer of David Lean's 1984 adaptation of A Passage to India and the son-in-law of Lord Louis Mountbatten. Ardeshir seems to have acquired this album shortly after Brabourne's death. Though Brabourne is not known to have been a major collection of Mughal painting, some souvenirs he acquired as a governor were sold Sotheby's London, 24 March 2021, lots 144-6.
This shamsa is likely to have come from another manuscript, probably from Safavid Iran. A similar shamsa appears at the opening of the Qur'an of Ibrahim Mirza in the Metropolitan Museum of Art (acc.no.13.228.2). The lightly-drawn white lappets inside the blue illuminated area, as well as the strong use of red, are reminiscent of the illuminated margins of the frontispiece of a Qur'an in the Khalili collection copied in Herat in AH 967 / 1559-60 AD (David James, After Timur: Qur'ans of the 15th and 16th centuries, pp.118-23, no.32).
The decorated field around our shamsa uses two different shades of gold ink in order to give the design greater definition. Discussing another manuscript in the Khalili Collection with similar illumination in the margin, David James suggests that this was added in India during the reign of Shah Jahan (James, op.cit., pp.200-5, no.48). The same technique appears in the illuminated ground around a shamsa in the Keir Collection which is also likely Persian in origin, but has a seal in the centre from the reign of Aurangzeb, dated to AH 1070 / 1659-60 AD, also suggesting that the gold may have been added in India (B. W. Robinson et al., Islamic Painting and the Arts of the Book, London, 1976, p.283, no.VI.36, ill. pl.146).
An impressive Mughal shamsa, signed by Mansur Naqqash and dated 8 Jumada II AH 1037 / 14 February 1628 AD, was sold in these Rooms, 25 June 2020, lot 65.
The borders of this page feature an arabesque of two intertwined vines. They are somewhat similar to the borders on at least one pair of facing folios in a Late Shah Jahan album, split between the National Museum of Asian Art (S1986.90) and Harvard University Arts Museums, Massachusetts (143.1983). Similar borders appear on other pages from the 'Brabourne-Ardeshir' album sold Sotheby's London, 10 July 1973: they are on the 'painting' side of lots 22 and 40; on the 'calligraphy' side of lots 2, 34, 37 (offered in this sale, lot 52); and on both sides of lot 31.
This folio is significant for understanding this album because it is inscribed in the upper left corner with the words 'Brabourne, 2/9/37'. This almost certainly refers to Michael Knatchbull, 5th Baron Brabourne (1895-1939). Brabourne was the Governor of Bombay between December 1933 and May 1937, and subsequently Governor of Bengal until his death in February 1939, serving as acting Viceroy during Lord Linlithgow's absence in 1938. His son John Knatchbull was the producer of David Lean's 1984 adaptation of A Passage to India and the son-in-law of Lord Louis Mountbatten. Ardeshir seems to have acquired this album shortly after Brabourne's death. Though Brabourne is not known to have been a major collection of Mughal painting, some souvenirs he acquired as a governor were sold Sotheby's London, 24 March 2021, lots 144-6.
This shamsa is likely to have come from another manuscript, probably from Safavid Iran. A similar shamsa appears at the opening of the Qur'an of Ibrahim Mirza in the Metropolitan Museum of Art (acc.no.13.228.2). The lightly-drawn white lappets inside the blue illuminated area, as well as the strong use of red, are reminiscent of the illuminated margins of the frontispiece of a Qur'an in the Khalili collection copied in Herat in AH 967 / 1559-60 AD (David James, After Timur: Qur'ans of the 15th and 16th centuries, pp.118-23, no.32).
The decorated field around our shamsa uses two different shades of gold ink in order to give the design greater definition. Discussing another manuscript in the Khalili Collection with similar illumination in the margin, David James suggests that this was added in India during the reign of Shah Jahan (James, op.cit., pp.200-5, no.48). The same technique appears in the illuminated ground around a shamsa in the Keir Collection which is also likely Persian in origin, but has a seal in the centre from the reign of Aurangzeb, dated to AH 1070 / 1659-60 AD, also suggesting that the gold may have been added in India (B. W. Robinson et al., Islamic Painting and the Arts of the Book, London, 1976, p.283, no.VI.36, ill. pl.146).
An impressive Mughal shamsa, signed by Mansur Naqqash and dated 8 Jumada II AH 1037 / 14 February 1628 AD, was sold in these Rooms, 25 June 2020, lot 65.