SIMON RAY
INDIAN & ISLAMIC WORKS OF ART
SIMON RAY
SIMON RAY
INDIAN & ISLAMIC WORKS OF ART
1 NOVEMBER 2024 TO 30 NOVEMBER 2024
BY APPOINTMENT
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
It is with great pleasure that I present this twenty-fourth catalogue of Simon Ray Indian & Islamic Works of Art
I would like to thank the scholars and experts who have so kindly and generously helped us prepare this catalogue: Andrew Topsfield, John Seyller, Will Kwiatkowski, Lisa Golombek, Robert Mason, Rukmani Kumari Rathore, Adeela Qureshi de Unger and Leng Tan.
William Edwards has written many of the descriptions for this catalogue. I would like to thank William for his excellent research and writing, particularly his expertise on the ceramics of the Islamic world.
I would like to thank the following for their skills in preparing so beautifully the works of art for installation and display: Mick Lapsley, Louise Macann, Helen Loveday and Tim Blake.
Finally, I would like to thank Richard Valencia for his stunning photography that makes the works of art jump vividly off the page; Richard Harris for his exceptional repro and colour preparation for the catalogue and Peter Keenan for his creative and innovative catalogue design that so beautifully presents these exquisite works of art.
Simon Ray
THREE COMPANIONS
Iran (SafavId), 17th century
heIght: 22.5 cm
WIdth: 47.8 cm
A panel of two tiles in the cuerda seca technique with a charming design of three courtiers enjoying a stroll in the open air under a vivid sky of cobalt blue. To the right can be seen the buildings of the city in the background, with an elegant, stylised minaret amongst the multi-coloured roofs, its soft outlines resembling a flame of turquoise with a black centre. The city is set on a hill and a path can be seen rising in the lower right corner, perhaps leading to the palace to which the courtiers are now returning.
The courtiers wear robes of turquoise, yellow and green, each tied by a sash, and striped turbans festooned with aigrettes in contrasting colours. The courtier in the yellow robe places one hand on the shoulder of his green robed companion, while with the other he gesticulates in animated conversation. The courtier in turquoise gently pats the back of the central courtier, and the whole scene is one of convivial friendship. Cloud bands in the chinoiserie manner float across the sky and stylised leaves to the left suggest a verdant landscape. The glowing colours of the tiles are seen to splendid effect against the vibrant cobalt blue sky.
These superbly refined seventeenth century Safavid figurative tiles may be confidently attributed to the hand of the great Safavid tile-maker called the “Master of the Faces” by Sophie Makariou, or to his workshop.
Several of this master artist’s superb tiles, all displaying his clear, firm signature style, have been sold at Simon Ray and Spink. They constitute the very best group of Safavid tiles, combining steady assured cuerda seca outlines with bold, imaginative compositions and brilliant colours faultlessly applied. As Makariou notes in her description of a tile in the Musée du Louvre, Paris, decorated by the “Master of the Faces” with a woman carrying two vases:
“The similarity in the drawing of the faces on such tiles…is indeed very striking, but it is above all the quality of the brushwork and the skill with which the glaze is applied that provoke admiration. The face is always composed in the same way: the lower lip of the mouth is drawn like a ‘cup’, whereas the upper lip consists of two small inverted arcs placed on an arc of a circle; the nose is always drawn in a straight line and rounded off at the end, with the side of the nose indicated by a curl shape. The eyes are shown with large pupils and the eyebrows are not joined; the ear is always depicted in the same way. The hair is not drawn in fine strokes but forms a mass of curls painted in a saturated black. The deeply coloured glazes are applied with perfect mastery, leaving few bubbles and no sign of any colour-run.”1
Provenance:
Hagop Kevorkian Collection
Spink and Son, London
Lloyd E. Cotsen, purchased from Spink and Son, London on 22nd March 2001
Reference:
1. Istanbul, Isfahan, Delhi: 3 Capitals of Islamic Art, Masterpieces from the Louvre Collection, 2008, p. 248, cat. no. 119. The tile Makariou describes is on long term loan to the Louvre from the Musée des Arts Décoratifs, Paris, inv. no. AD 15120.
Lloyd E. Cotsen (1929-2017) was a visionary philanthropist, businessman of acumen, President and CEO of Neutrogena, where he successfully marketed the amber coloured glycerine soap bar that brought him fame and fortune, keen archaeologist who went on excavations to ancient prehistoric sites such as Lerna in Greece, and donor to major museums of his vast and highly original collections of art and archaeology, folk art, children’s books, Japanese bamboo baskets, and textiles from all world cultures and historic periods including the thousands of fragments that form his celebrated Textile Traces Study Collection.
With Neutrogena established on the consumer map, Cotsen was able to activate his expertise for art and objects with his instinctive eye and innovative approach. He did not just collect in well-trodden, established fields but was a trailblazer in collecting unusual groups of objects, seeking out “the extraordinary in the ordinary”. While at Neutrogena
Corporation HQ in Los Angeles, Cotsen filled the building with a vibrant collection of objects that enhanced the workspace so that daily working life was accompanied by objects worthy of museums.
After he sold Neutrogena in 1994, Cotsen began sharing his collections by giving them away to institutions accompanied by funding and endowments so that they could be enjoyed by as many people as possible and studied by scholars. Cotsen gave his internationally recognised collection of Japanese bamboo baskets built up between the late 1960s to the mid-1990s to the Asian Art Museum of San Francisco. He donated his collection of roughly 120,000 children’s books to the Cotsen Children’s Library within the Rare Books and Special Collections Department of the Firestone Library at Princeton University. His astounding collection of folk art has found a home in the Museum of International Folk Art (MOIFA) in Santa Fe, New Mexico. The Textile
Traces Study Collection of over 4,500 fragments covering the entire known history of textiles is now at the George Washington University Museum and the Textile Museum, with a dedicated research center named the Cotsen Textile Traces Study Center. Cotsen’s collection of 100 ancient Chinese bronze mirrors is now in the Shanghai Museum.
In addition to the museum contributions of objects, of which the above is only a selection of his most prominent donations, Cotsen also believed in the power of teaching, learning, and education. Part of his legacy is the creation and funding of the Cotsen Foundation for the Art of Teaching, and support of the educational research at the Cotsen Institute of Archaeology at UCLA.
A stellar group of objects and textiles from Cotsen’s collections is published by Mary Hunt Kahlenberg (ed.), The Extraordinary in the Ordinary: Textiles and Objects from the Collections of Lloyd Cotsen and the Neutrogena Corporation, 1998.
Photograph courtesy of the Cotsen Foundation for the ART of TEACHING
2
IBEX AT THE WATER’S EDGE
Iran (SafavId), 17th century
heIght: 24.3 cm
WIdth: 48.5 cm
A pair of tiles in the cuerda seca technique with a charming design of seven gambolling ibex and the feet of two shepherds standing at the water’s edge. A sweep of abstract waves, arranged like stylised chinoiserie cloud bands, occupies the lower diagonal of the tile on the left. The waves are drawn with beautifully fluent lines of dark purply brown manganese oxide as part of the cuerda seca technique. The light blue water contrasts with the dark cobalt blue ground against which the ibex are drawn.
Straddling both tiles are the playful forms of seven graceful ibex at rest or at play, maximally differentiated in posture, colour and surface
decoration. The sweeping yellow skirt of a shepherd wearing green shoes and blue leggings towers over the ibex in a delightful play of scale. The crossed feet of a second seated shepherd are clad in green leggings and yellow shoes, his smaller scale imparting a sense of distance and implied recession to his location in the background of the narrative.
A white ibex with large black spots rests by the water’s edge. A green standing ibex raises its front right hoof and turns its head with eager attention to face a seated ibex covered with small sparkling dots all over its coat. A yellow ibex charges across the tiles to lock horns in combat with a pale turquoise ibex with black spots and white trefoil patterning. Poking up from the bottom edge of the right tile is the inquisitive, turning head of a green ibex that surveys with keen interest the luxuriant grove of flowers and
leaves framing the right edge of the composition. Next to this adult buck or doe can be glimpsed the ears of a hornless young kid under one year old. Ibex’s horns appear at birth and continue to grow throughout the rest of their life; both male and female ibex have horns, with male horns the longest and most knobbly, but baby ibex have only one-inch stumps in their first year. The short stumps are not depicted here but the lack of horns makes it clear that this is a kid ibex.
Interpretation of the scene depicted on these two tiles is greatly facilitated by comparison with a panel of four tiles now at the Art Institute of Chicago, in which the bottom two tiles have exactly the same design as the present tiles but mirrored in reverse, suggesting that the two village scenes once faced each other as part of a pair of matching spandrels.1 The two upper tiles of the
panel at the Art Institute complete the giant shepherd standing in the yellow coat as well as the shepherd seated cross-legged in front of a tent playing a flute. Between them are three more ibex of diminutive scale: a buck with huge horns, a doe with smaller horns, and a kid with no horns. Towering over the ibex at the apex of the composition are the skirt and feet of a third shepherd who beats a shepherd’s dog he has tied up to dangle from the branches of a tree, to punish the dog who has let a wolf outwit it and successfully steal a sheep. The unfortunate dog has a dappled black and white pelt that is maximally differentiated from the varied coats of the ibex.
The two tiles that make up the present panel were purchased from Simon Ray when he was still working at Spink and Son in London, by the businessman, philanthropist and collector Lloyd Cotsen (1929-2017)
the late owner of Neutrogena. Cotsen first purchased the tile on the left with the waves from the Spink catalogue Passion & Tranquillity: Indian & Islamic Works of Art, 1998, cat. no. 13, on 4th September 1998. He then purchased the tile on the right, which has not been published, from Simon Ray at Spink on 15th March 1999. Cotsen was thus able to unite the two tiles to form this panel.
A third tile from this scene, which mirrors that of its matching tile at the Art Institute of Chicago, showing the rest of the large shepherd dressed in yellow and the skirt of the shepherd beating the dog, is published in the very first Simon Ray Indian & Islamic Works of Art catalogue, 2002, p. 33, cat. no. 19. Mr Cotsen did not purchase this tile, but like his two tiles shown here, this third tile from the village scene also came from the celebrated collection of Hagop Kevorkian.
Lisa Golombek and Robert Mason have been conducting extensive research on a group of magnificent Safavid tiled arches and individual tiles now in the collection of the Royal Ontario Museum. In their efforts to reconstruct how the tiled arches in Ontario once looked when intact and installed, Golombek and Mason have used dispersed tiles found in other museum collections and on the art market in catalogues such as our Simon Ray catalogues. The results of the Ontario Safavid Tile Project are published in the article by Lisa Golombek and Robert B. Mason, “The Garden of the Pavilion of the Stables, Isfahan”, in Orientations, vol. 50, no. 2, MarchApril 2019, pp. 124-133. Details of the ongoing research project are also be found on the Royal Ontario Museum website rom.on.ca in four articles by the authors entitled “Safavid Tile Project
I-IV”, where they present their full panel reconstructions via graphics software.
One of the most brilliant tile spandrel reconstructions that Golombek and Mason have kindly shared with us, uses the cluster of four tiles at the Art Institute of Chicago placed at its core to reconstruct a spandrel telling the story of “Bahram Gur and the Unfaithful Dog”. Our two Cotsen/ Kevorkian tiles therefore come from a spandrel facing and mirroring the spandrel from which the Art Institute tiles come, and we can confirm that our two tiles illustrate a small slice of the same Bahram Gur story.
According to Golombek and Mason, the identification of this scene as a story from the Khamsa of Nizami was made by Ingrid Luschey-Schmeisser in a remarkable article deducing that a later arch panel in the British Museum was a copy of a Safavid original. She used this panel as a guide to identify a series of tiles that belonged to a lost Safavid building, the Talar-i Tavileh or Pavilion of the Stables in Isfahan.2 Several were in the Berlin Museum, but the key to her discovery was a cluster of four tiles on which the head of the dog, hanging from a tree, was visible.3 Since then, at least thirteen more tiles from the original arch panel have been located. The original scene has been reconstructed almost in its entirety, using tiles from both spandrels of the arch. The Chicago cluster is from the left spandrel, whereas our tiles are from the right spandrel.
According to Golombek and Mason, the scene depicts the story of the Sasanian king Bahram Gur, who
goes riding in the countryside with a companion. He stops at a village where he sees an unusual sight. A shepherd is beating his dog which hangs from a tree. The king, who is in disguise, asks the shepherd why he would destroy the dog on whom he depends to look after his flock. The shepherd tells a lengthy tale, recounting how this dog was lured away from his duties by a wolf which then killed and ate a sheep. For this the dog is being punished.4 From this story, Bahram Gur draws the lesson that one cannot trust those who are unfaithful.5
Provenance:
Hagop Kevorkian Collection
Spink and Son, London
Lloyd E. Cotsen, purchased from Spink and Son, London on 4th September 1998 and 19th March 1999
Published:
The tile on the left was published in Spink and Son, London, Passion & Tranquillity: Indian & Islamic Works of Art, Monday 12th October to Friday 16th November 1998, cat. no. 13.
Acknowledgements:
We would like to thank Lisa Golombek and Robert Mason from the Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto, for their expert advice and for sharing with us their current research on the Safavid Tile Project.
References:
1. https://www.artic.edu/artworks/137226/ four-tiles-with-a-figural-scene
2. Personal communication with Lisa Golombek who kindly shared with us excerpts from her forthcoming Ontario publication with Robert Mason, Catalogue of Friezes
3. Ibid.
4. Ibid.
5. Ibid.
COMPOSITE FLORAL SPRAYS
Iran (SafavId), 17th century
heIght: 24.2 cm
WIdth: 24.2 cm
A tile in the cuerda seca technique in a rare palette of green, yellow, rose pink, turquoise, lilac, cobalt blue and black on a white ground, with an elegant and vibrant design of multicoloured rosettes and stylised irises.
A magnificent group of stylised and composite floral sprays rises from the bottom of the tile. Rosettes with five cusped pink petals surrounding green buds frame part of a lilac
rosette with splashes of yellow below. Above, large composite iris sprays with bifurcated leaves in two shades of cobalt blue rise upwards. The softly folding leaves are painted underneath in a bright turquoise hue and combined with clusters of smaller pink leaves frame the central yellow and black buds within. Long slender leaves in two shades of green frame the sprays whilst above, a pair of large blue stems with yet more folding green leaves emerge. A further polychrome composite iris spray can be seen to the right of the tile where a single green serrated leaf with a pink centre bends towards the main group of sprays.
The practice of decorating tiles with bright colours outlined in black was known as cuerda seca, which translates from Spanish as “dry cord”. This process involved applying a wax border between coloured glazes in order to prevent them from mixing during the firing process. Cuerda seca replaced mosaics as a more cost effective and faster polychrome technique and developed in the Islamic lands of Spain, Iran, and Central Asia at the end of the fourteenth century and remained popular in these regions for several centuries.
We published in our Simon Ray Indian & Islamic Works of Art 2010 catalogue a Safavid tile in a similar palette on pp. 46-47, cat. no. 19. For further examples from this group of tiles with the distinctive palette, see the Art Institute of Chicago, reference no. 1932.65 and the Royal Ontario Museum, ROM, reference nos. 976.298.108 and 976.298.109.
THREE CALLIGRAPHIC TILES
Iran (SafavId), 17th century
heIght: 19.5 cm
WIdth: 59 cm
A panel of three calligraphic tiles in the cuerda seca technique inscribed in elegant white thuluth reserved against a vibrant cobalt blue ground.
The inscription reads: Your reciter (of the Qur’an) said: “Verily, your protector [is God] …” (Qur’an 5:55, in part)
Qur’an 5:55 is of special significance to Shi‘is, who believe that it refers to the special status of walaya (friendship, proximity) enjoyed by Imam CAli.
These tiles would have originally formed part of a larger inscription panel decorating the wall of a mosque or palace. The finely underscored dark outlines reinforce the white calligraphy contained within and enhance the contrast against the surrounding rich cobalt blue.
For similar Safavid calligraphic tile panels, see Gérard Degeorge and Yves Porter, The Art of the Islamic Tile, 2002, pp. 139-140, and at the Victoria and Albert Museum, accession no. 621:1 to 7-1878.
Provenance: Robert Kime (1946-2022)
Robert Kime was a British interior decorator who rose to eminence in the profession through a unique combination of antique dealing, textile collecting and creating rooms with a comfortable,
understated and timeless elegance that respected layers of history and looked perfectly imperfect as if organically grown through the generations. Kime worked on the homes of King Charles III, Daphne Guinness, Andrew Lloyd Webber and the Duke of Beaufort, amongst others.
Acknowledgement:
We would like to thank Will Kwiatkowski for his reading and interpretation of the inscriptions on this panel as well as the following catalogue entries 5, 6, 7, 8 and 9.
TWO CALLIGRAPHIC TILES
Iran (SafavId), 17th century
heIght: 19.7 cm
WIdth: 39.5 cm
A panel of two calligraphic tiles in the cuerda seca technique inscribed in elegant white thuluth reserved against a vibrant cobalt blue ground.
The inscription reads: …those who believe…
This phrase forms part of a larger inscription from Qur’an 5:55, which reads: “And your reciter said: ‘Verily, your protector is God and His Apostle, and those
who believe …’” (Qur’an 5:55, in part). The combination of words “…those who believe…” occurs two hundred and twenty times in the Qur’an, including in Qur’an 5:55.
Provenance: Robert Kime (1946-2022)
CALLIGRAPHIC TILE
Iran (SafavId), 17th century
heIght: 19.7 cm
WIdth: 19.7 cm
A calligraphic tile in the cuerda seca technique inscribed in elegant white thuluth reserved against a vibrant cobalt blue ground.
The inscription reads: …God and…
There is no way of being certain which part of the Qur’an these words occur in. It is possible that they are part of Qur’an 5:55, part of which is found on other tiles of this group catalogued previously.
Provenance: Robert Kime (1946-2022)
CALLIGRAPHIC TILE
Iran (SafavId), 17th century
heIght: 19.7 cm
WIdth: 19.7 cm
A calligraphic tile in the cuerda seca technique inscribed in elegant white thuluth reserved against a vibrant cobalt blue ground.
The inscription reads:…you/your God…
The Qur’anic verse to which these words belong cannot be ascertained with any degree of certainty. The combination of words/letters does occur in Qur’an 5:55, part of which is found on other tiles of this group catalogued previously, but it may well come from another part of the Qur’an.
Provenance: Robert Kime (1946-2022)
CALLIGRAPHIC TILE
Iran (SafavId), 17th century
heIght: 19.5 cm
WIdth: 19.5 cm
A calligraphic tile in the cuerda seca technique inscribed in elegant white thuluth reserved against a vibrant cobalt blue ground.
This tile has the combination of three letters, lam, kaf and mim. It could be a word meaning “for you” or “to you”, or form part of a longer word. This combination of letters does not, however, occur in Qur’an 5:55, parts of which are found on other related tiles in previous catalogue entries.
Provenance: Robert Kime (1946-2022)
CALLIGRAPHIC TILE
Iran (SafavId), 17th century
heIght: 19.2 cm
WIdth: 19.5 cm
A calligraphic tile in the cuerda seca technique inscribed in elegant white thuluth reserved against a vibrant
cobalt blue ground.
Though the calligraphy on this tile is extremely elegant, it is uncertain what word or words these letter combinations belong to.
Provenance: Robert Kime (1946-2022)
TULIPS, CARNATIONS AND HYACINTHS
turkey (IznIk), cIrca 1550
heIght: 21 cm
WIdth: 18 cm
A hexagonal underglaze-painted polychrome tile in shades of cobalt blue, turquoise, manganese and green against a white ground, with an asymmetrical design of tulips, carnations and hyacinths.
A central cobalt tulip with white spots is flanked to either side by a further green tulip. All three are supported on green stems with pairs of elongated leaves which rise from the bottom of the tile. Vibrant turquoise stems of manganese carnations surround the tulips with arcing cobalt hyacinth sprays framing the central flowers to each side.
A single small trefoil cartouche decorates the ground to the top of the tile.
The polychrome hues of manganese and green present in our tile suggest it is from the “Damascus” period of Iznik production, which occurred from around 1540-1550. This style emerged after the early sixteenth century blue and white phase of Iznik pottery, but before the artisans mastered the technique with the introduction of bole red and emerald green from 1556 onwards.
This group of tiles is close to those decorating the Yeni Kaplica Baths in Bursa, which has a foundation tile bearing the date AH 960/1552-53 AD. Bursa was the first capital of the Ottoman Empire, following its capture from the Byzantines in 1326, and was embellished by successive sultans with mosques, tombs, madrasas and baths. For a discussion of the baths and its tiles, along with line-drawings, see John Carswell, “The Tiles in the Yeni Kaplica Baths at Bursa”, Apollo, July 1984, pp. 36-43.
For a similar hexagonal tile, see Hülya Bilgi, Dance of Fire: Iznik Tiles and Ceramics in the Sadberk Hanim Museum and Ömer M. Koç Collections, 2009, p. 109. An identical tile was sold at Bonhams, London, 21st April 2015, lot 109.
Provenance: Acquired by a European family before 1928 Private collection, by descent, 1928-2023
11
SAZ LEAF AND BROKEN STEM
turkey (IznIk), cIrca 1575
heIght: 24.7 cm
WIdth: 24.7 cm
A polychrome underglaze-painted tile in shades of turquoise, cobalt blue, emerald green, sage green and sealing wax red against a crisp white ground. The design features a prominent saz leaf surrounded by stylised rosettes and serrated cartouches.
The large vibrant turquoise saz leaf moves in a slight S-curve from left to right, its serrated edges outlined in cobalt blue. A single tulip spray with sealing wax stripes decorates the turquoise ground to its centre.
Looping over and through the saz leaf is a broken branch from a large prunus spray, which emerges from the bottom of the tile. The sage green branches hold two groups of stylised five-petalled rosettes in shades of cobalt blue with red buds and emerald green leaves that surround the central saz leaf. The broken branch hangs limply down, nestling within the saz leaf’s serrated fronds, giving an added air of naturalism to the design. To the bottom left and top right of the tile, glimpses of composite floral palmettes can be seen, balanced to the other corners with serrated floral cartouches depicting carnations and tulips against a thick raised sealing wax red ground. All of the polychrome designs are set against a crisp white ground, further highlighting the bold and vibrant colours.
This tile is part of a well-known group from the Eyüp shrine and mosque complex on the Golden Horn in Istanbul. Eyüp had established a monastery in the fifth century, which was then restored by and sometimes gave refuge to a succession of Byzantine emperors. The tomb of Ayyub al-Ansari, (Eyüp in Turkish) was discovered there in 1458, and a
mosque was built to commemorate him. As a companion of the Prophet Muhammad who fell in the First Arab Siege, 674-678 AD, he is greatly revered and the mosque and shrine remain an important place of pilgrimage for Turkish Muslims today.
There are a number of examples of Eyüp tiles to be found in public and private collections: a large panel from the baths at Eyüp is in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London; two panels of eight tiles are in the Louvre, Paris; a panel of four in the David Collection, Copenhagen; and others in the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford; the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam; the Cinili Kiosk in Istanbul and the Museum of Islamic Art in Cairo.
Similar examples are published in Hülya Bilgi, Dance of Fire: Iznik Tiles and Ceramics in the Sadberk Hanim Museum and Ömer M. Koç Collections, 2009, p. 222; and Maria d’Orey Capucho Queiroz Ribeiro, Iznik Pottery and Tiles in the Calouste Gulbenkian Collection, 2009, p. 119.
Provenance: Philippa Scott (1946-2023), London, acquired 1970s/1980s
SAZ LEAVES AND COMPOSITE SPRAYS
turkey (IznIk), cIrca 1575
heIght: 24.3 cm
WIdth: 22.3 cm
An underglaze-painted polychrome border tile in shades of cobalt blue, emerald green, sealing wax red, turquoise, sage green and white with a design of stylised floral sprays.
The left half of the tile, painted on a vibrant cobalt ground, features a repeated pattern of alternating composite sprays and saz leaves all connected by white leafy arabesque tendrils. A composite lotus flower with a turquoise calyx and red and emerald green detail floats above a stylised rosette spray with cusped petals in white and red with emerald splashes. A vertical turquoise line separates the floral border on the left from the field of rosette sprays to the right. Set against a white ground, sage green branches of cobalt six-petalled flowers with emerald elongated and serrated leaves fill the space.
A panel containing an almost identical tile (the thin vertical central line is red as opposed to turquoise) can be seen in the prayer hall of the Selimiye Mosque in Edirne; this is published in Gérard Degeorge and Yves Porter, The Art of the Islamic Tile, 2001, p. 208. For tiles with a similar border pattern, see Hülya Bilgi, Dance of Fire: Iznik Tiles and Ceramics in the Sadberk Hanim Museum and Ömer M. Koç Collections, 2009, pp. 146 and 171.
Provenance: Peter Scarisbrick (1923-2018)
COMPOSITE ROSETTES AND SAZ LEAVES
turkey (IznIk), cIrca 1575
heIght: 13.2 cm
WIdth: 19 cm
An underglaze-painted rectangular border tile in shades of cobalt blue, turquoise, Armenian bole or sealing wax red and black against a white ground, with an unusual rhythmical design of stylised composite flowers and saz leaves.
The focal point of the pattern is the central cusped composite rosette, painted with eight radiating turquoise leaves emerging from a raised red flower that frame first cobalt spots on a light cobalt ground and then small raised red splashes to the outer crisp white ground. Framing this rosette to either side is
a white composite lotus palmette with a red and cobalt centre and red spots to the cusped overlapping petals. Scrolling white tendrils with smaller stylised rosettes emerge from these flowers, leading to large, serrated saz leaves placed above and below. The white saz leaf cartouches both contain decorative turquoise sprigs with red rosettes. The vibrant cobalt blue ground of the tile, where you can almost see the artist’s brush strokes, further enhances the stylised sprays that fill the field. Due to the shape, this tile would almost certainly have formed part of a border frieze, framing a central field of larger square tiles.
Provenance:
Claude Aguttes, Paris, 26th May 2010, lot 291
Sir Howard Hodgkin (1932-2017)
TULIPS AND CARNATIONS IN A VASE
turkey (IznIk), 17th century
heIght: 24.8 cm
WIdth: 24.8 cm
An underglaze-painted polychrome tile in shades of cobalt blue and turquoise against a white ground with a symmetrical design of a vase with floral sprays, flanked to either side by a cypress tree. The design is painted with great spontaneity, freshness and movement.
The tile is vertically arranged and depicts a pair of tulips and seven
carnations all growing from a central vase. The low flared and footed vase is decorated with a pair of addorsed stylised tulip sprays. Framing it to either side is a group of small stylised flowers, which fill the ground. The tulips and carnations all arc outwards and a single turquoise cusped lotus palmette can also been seen just above the vase nestling within the floral stems. To either side, the tile is framed by part of a large cypress tree painted in vibrant turquoise. This tile would have originally been part of a much larger continuous pattern.
Tiles of similar age and composition can be seen in the Topkapi Palace, Istanbul, decorating part of an exterior wall of the harem. As the Ottoman court began to withdraw its official patronage in the mid-seventeenth century, potters turned elsewhere and sought new markets abroad. Large quantities of tiles were exported to Egypt, and both the mosque of Ibrahim Agha in Cairo and the Coptic church of Deir Abu Seifein are also decorated with similar blue and turquoise tiles.
Literature: John Carswell, Iznik Pottery, 1998, p. 107, pl. 85.
TULIPS AND CARNATIONS IN A VASE
Italy (florence), cIrca 1890
By ulISSe cantagallI
heIght: 23.6 cm
WIdth: 23.6 cm
An underglaze-painted polychrome tile in shades of cobalt blue and turquoise against a white ground with a symmetrical design of a vase with floral sprays, flanked to either side by a cypress tree.
The tile is vertically arranged and depicts a pair of tulips and seven
carnations all growing from a central vase. The low flared rim vase is decorated with a pair of addorsed stylised tulip sprays on a cobalt ground. Framing the vase to either side is a group of small stylised flowers which fill the ground. The tulips and carnations all arc outwards and a single turquoise and cobalt blue cusped lotus palmette can also been seen just above the vase nestling within the floral stems. To either side, the tile is framed by part of a large cypress tree painted in a piquant turquoise. To the reverse, the tile is stamped with CANTAGALLI FIRENZE.
This tile by Cantagalli exactly copies an earlier seventeenth century design from Iznik in Turkey, an example of which can be found in the previous catalogue entry. Patterns and colours from Iznik influenced European artists in the late nineteenth century, such as Edmé Samson, William De Morgan, Theodore Deck and Ulisse Cantagalli. Examples of this Iznik design can be seen in the Topkapi Palace, Istanbul, decorating an exterior wall of the harem.
Literature: John Carswell, Iznik Pottery, 1998, p. 107, pl. 85.
GRAPES AND SCROLLING VINES
SyrIa (damaScuS), late 16th/early 17th century
heIght: 26.3 cm
WIdth: 26.8 cm
An underglaze-painted polychrome tile in colours of cobalt blue, turquoise, bright green and black against a white slip, depicting a stylised design of bunches of grapes framed by borders of repeated floral sprays.
The main field is painted against a dark cobalt ground. To the centre is placed a turquoise border, painted in a slight S-curve and filled with stylised rosette sprays, leading at both ends to cusped cartouche roundels containing leafy arabesque designs. This motif bears a striking resemblance to a ruyi sceptre, a popular ornament in Ming dynasty China in the same period and is possibly an example of Chinese designs influencing Middle Eastern ceramics.
A large white vine has been bisected by this border, and bends under the weight of the grapes seen to
the bottom left corner. The fruit are surrounded by cusped vibrant green leaves with white spines. A further vine with grapes can be seen to the top of the tile, its tendrils resembling corkscrews against the cobalt blue ground. To the right side of the tile is a thick vertical white margin with a further turquoise border of repeated stylised white tendrils edged in black.
For a tile with the same design, see Harvard Art Museums, the Edwin Binney 3rd Collection of Turkish Art, 1985.279. For similar Damascus tiles with patterns of grapes and vine leaves, see the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, acc. no. 22.185.13 a-f; the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, accession no. 524-1900; Leighton House, London and in the prayer hall of the Jami al-Darwishiyya in Damascus.
Both the grape and vine leaf combination and the undulating stems are design concepts that are found in other artefacts in the Ottoman genre. The swaying stems bearing side-swept leaves are often encountered in both brocades and velvets of Ottoman manufacture, also in a few rare examples of embroidery.
Provenance:
Sir John Gray Hill (1839-1914), Liverpool Sir John Edward Gray Hill was an English solicitor who specialised in maritime law. He was also well known as an art collector and travel writer. A handwritten paper label on the back of this tile dating to 1971 gives the provenance. The owner believes that it was probably given “to her or to her parents by my Great-Uncle, Sir John Gray Hill, a wellknown Liverpool solicitor... He and his wife travelled in Egypt and Palestine and went to Petra and Damascus...”
Hill travelled extensively in Syria. In 1891 he published With the Beduins: A Narrative of Journeys and Adventures in Unfrequented Parts of Syria, illustrated with photographs taken by his wife, the painter Caroline Emily Gray Hill. This travelogue is the record of three of his many trips to Syria made in 1888, 1889 and 1890. It is likely that this tile was acquired by Hill in Syria. Lady Gray Hill shared his love of the region and greatly enjoyed her travels with him. In 2002, the Ticho House Museum in Jerusalem mounted a retrospective solo exhibition of her landscapes of Palestine, painted on her travels with Sir John.
SPLIT-LEAF PALMETTE WITH CLOUD BANDS
SyrIa (damaScuS), late 16th/early 17th century
heIght: 27.3 cm
WIdth: 26.8 cm
An underglaze-painted polychrome tile in hues of cobalt blue, turquoise and sage green against a white ground, with a design of a large split-leaf palmette cartouche and composite sprays.
The pattern comprises an elaborate diagonally orientated split-leaf palmette painted in a vibrant cobalt blue and containing white cusped cloud band motifs highlighted with splashes of green and turquoise, surrounded by blue intertwined floral tendrils and stylised composite floral sprays containing small rosette flowers to each corner, all set against a white ground. According to Arthur Millner, this pattern is a more elaborate version
of the “Dome of the Rock split palmette design”.
For a Damascus tile with a closely related palmette design in slightly different colours, see Arthur Millner, Damascus Tiles, 2015, p. 274, fig. 6.73.
Provenance: Private Collection, London
Acquired in an antique shop in Damascus in 1970
CYPRESS TREES AND FLORAL SPRAYS
heIght: 22.8 cm
WIdth: 21.5 cm
An underglaze-painted polychrome tile in hues of cobalt blue, turquoise, aubergine and sage green against a white ground, with a design of stylised floral sprays surrounding part of a pottery bowl.
A pair of thin tapering cypress trees, one painted in green and the other turquoise rise from the bottom of the tile. To their right, part of a conical bowl can be seen, decorated with floral patterns against a cobalt ground. Part of a further circular object can be seen above, decorated with radiating cobalt and turquoise horizontal stripes. Two large stems of stylised flowers fill the remaining white ground: one with cobalt petals and the other with aubergine petals. This design is separated by a thick vertical turquoise border from the meandering pattern to the left, painted on a vibrant cobalt ground with white split-leaf palmettes and rosette sprays with dark aubergine detail.
For a Damascus tile with a similar vertical border, see Arthur Millner, Damascus Tiles, 2015, p. 264, fig. 6.47.
SyrIa (damaScuS), early 17th century
AN ABUNDANCE OF FLORAL SPRAYS
Iran (Qajar, tehran), 1880-1885
heIght: 32 cm
WIdth: 34.5 cm
A large moulded polychrome tile, underglaze-painted in shades of cobalt blue, green, turquoise, pink, yellow and manganese against a white slip ground, with a stylised symmetrical design of carnations, rosettes, tulips and saz leaves all competing for our attention under a thick and unctuous glaze.
The moulded body of the tile, indicative of the Qajar period of ceramics, depicts various floral sprays jostling for position. A large central composite spray provides the focal point, with multi-coloured overlapping leaves surrounded to the exterior by smaller teardrop-shaped buds topped with trefoil leaves. To the centre of the flower is a vaseshaped cartouche with a yellow ground, edged in turquoise and containing three further pink and turquoise buds. Leafy cobalt tendrils emerge from this serrated medallion creating swirling arabesques and connecting the central spray to further stylised flowers covering the remaining white ground. A single light yellow carnation spray frames the central flower to either side, whilst below a
pair of composite rosettes are slightly hidden by the multi-coloured tulips in front of them. Further rosettes can be seen decorating the edges of the tile. Above the carnations are a pair of large cobalt and turquoise saz leaves that partly hide manganese and yellow rosettes behind. Further bifurcated saz leaves, tendrils and stylised composite sprays fill the remaining ground.
This design mimics the style of sixteenth century ceramics from Turkey, combining their stylised and composite sprays but utilising a wider palette which includes yellow and pink as well as the turquoise and cobalt blue seen in Iznik pottery.
Provenance:
George Farrow (1916-2001)
Born in Greenwich in south east London, George Farrow rose from humble origins to build a property development firm that became one of Britain’s largest private landlords. The epitome of the self-made man, Farrow left school at sixteen to enter the building industry, but qualified as a Chartered Surveyor through evening classes. After the war he took over a small property development firm that he expanded exponentially, which afforded him the means to collect art of the highest quality.
Thrilled by antiques and fine art from an early age, he began collecting with a passion in the 1950s, beginning with European bronzes. He spent the next half century hunting down exceptional pieces from China, the Middle East and Europe. From a young age, school trips introduced him to the Horniman Museum and his parents, on special occasions, would take him to the Victoria and Albert Museum.
The precision required in surveying seems to have spilled over into Farrow’s own assured cataloguing of his eclectic yet comprehensive collections. The catalogue of his objects is meticulously arranged in volumes by type, revealing the depth of his knowledge, the distillation of years of devoted study and his remarkable range as a collector.
ZOOMORPHIC MOON FLASK
northern IndIa (multan), cIrca 1880
heIght: 26.5 cm
WIdth: 18.5 cm
depth: 9.3 cm
A highly unusual underglaze-painted water flask created in the shape of a pair of fighting animals, with loop handles, pierced to the centre and on a tapered collared base. The flask is painted in polychrome shades of cobalt blue, yellow and turquoise against a white slip ground.
The two beasts depicted here are engaged in a fight to the death. It appears obvious that the larger yellow assailant is a wild Indian tiger, resplendent in a rich yellow hue with stripes to the body and tail. He sports blue whiskers and wears a decorative cobalt collar to his neck as he bites down upon the boar beneath him, on its back with trotters in the air, struggling to defend itself. Painted in a vibrant dark cobalt blue, the boar pushes against the tiger to free itself, but to no avail. The arch of its back becomes the base of the flask where a pattern of repeated lappet motifs decorates the surface. Separating the beasts is a circular pierced hole to the centre of the flask, a common feature on such vessels. A painted turquoise square surrounds the hole whilst the remaining ground between the animals is white so as to both separate the beasts and highlight the action before us. Above the tiger, the neck, handles and mouth are all decorated in cobalt and turquoise with further lappet patterns.
This is an extremely unusual object where the artist has used great skill and imagination to create a flask which not only has a practical use, but also cleverly reinterprets the stylised form seen on most Multan moon flasks to depict a pair of fighting animals.
DANCING GANESHA
northern IndIa (madhya pradeSh or rajaSthan), 10th/11th century
heIght: 53 cm
WIdth: 27.4 cm
depth: 21.5 cm
A buff-coloured yellow sandstone fragmentary figure of Ganesha the elephant-headed deity, adorned with a jewelled headdress, multiple necklaces and a snake tied around his torso.
Ganesha faces forwards and is depicted in the S-curve or tribhanga pose, with his hips and head slightly angled and his trunk curling to his left suggesting that he has been captured in mid-movement, perhaps dancing joyously in imitation of his father Shiva, the king of dancers. The top of his large head is decorated with a jewelled headdress, parts of which fall onto his forehead. His almond-shaped eyes sit beneath curved brows and traces remain of his tusks below. His neck is covered with several circular necklaces and decorating his chest is a thick, triple strand pearl necklace terminating in a pendant. Below is his bulbous belly which represents the cosmos, the seven realms above and below and the seven oceans which are inside. These are held together by the cosmic energy or kundalini which is symbolised by the huge snake around him, traces of which we can see to the lower right of the torso. The beginning of his dhoti can also be seen appearing just below. This figure of Ganesha would have probably been placed in a temple niche to eliminate impediments between the worshipper and the divine.
Ganesha is the elephant-headed god of auspiciousness and son of Shiva and Parvati, a god who removes obstacles and grants success. The combination of human and animal form came about when Ganesha, who did not know his father but who guarded his palace, stopped Shiva from coming in after a long journey. In a fury Shiva reacted to his unknown guard by chopping off his head. The intervention of Parvati, Shiva’s consort and Ganesha’s mother, made it possible to attach to the body of the young man the head of the first being to pass the scene of the drama. The first living creature to pass by was an elephant. In this way, Ganesha acquired the strength of the elephant, kept the intelligence of a man, and became a god. To this day Ganesha remains a muchloved god in India. Although primarily a Hindu deity, Ganesha has also been popular with both Buddhists and Jains.
For a similar sandstone Ganesha sculpture, see Vishakha N. Desai, Gods, Guardians and Lovers, 1993, pp. 168-169 and B. N. Goswamy, Essence of Indian Art, 1986, p. 96.
Provenance:
Stuart Cary Welch, acquired in 1969
On loan to the Harvard Art Museums, from 18th June 1969, identification nos. TL17607.36 and 320.1983
Exhibition history at Harvard: The Music Room 22nd September - 11th November 1984
Indian and Southeast Asian Sculpture 20th October 1985 - 1st August 2008
Re-View: Arts of India & the Islamic Lands 26th April 2008 - 1st June 2013
BIDRI HOOKAH BASE AND RING
IndIa (deccan early 18th century
heIght of hookah
dIameter of hookah
heIght of rIng
dIameter of r
A circular hookah finely inlaid with silver in the technique with an overall design of repeated stars bordered by meandering floral sprays and geometric forms.
The hookah base with its simple yet elegant design has a flared trumpet mouth and an everted rim. The main frieze is covered in a diagonal trellis with superimposed crosses at the points of intersection, which together form eight-pointed stars. According to Susan Stronge, this geometric diaper may indicate a Deccani provenance as twentieth century examples from Bidar continue to use the same pattern in a continuation of an older tradition.1 Containing the star design to the top and bottom of the bulbous body are thin borders of key fret motifs. These are framed by wider friezes of meandering stylised single floral sprays. To the bottom of the hookah is a border of repeated geometric lappets, whilst the wide collar to the top contains arabesque designs of repeated serrated leaves framing single peony sprays with further key fret and floral borders. The neck features a thin chevron collar below a much wider pinched collar with repeated cusped sprays. To the trumpet mouth, a design of stars identical to the main field is framed above and below by thin key fret borders. The lip is decorated with more single cusped sprays.
According to Mark Zebrowski in his book Gold, Silver & Bronze from Mughal India, 1997 where the hookah is published on p. 235, this “…is the only huqqa I know to have retained its matching ring.” Its decoration mirrors that of the base, featuring a main field of stars, framed above and below by meandering stylised floral borders and edged with chevrons.
The pattern of silver stars as seen in our circular hookah base can also be seen in a bell-shaped hookah discussed by Susan Stronge in Bidri Ware: Inlaid Metalwork from India, 1985, pp. 50-52, no. 14. Formerly in Mark Zebrowski’s collection and now in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London (IS 4-1977), this hookah is decorated with vertical hexagonal panels in which the star pattern alternates with diapers of
floral quatrefoils. Stronge dates this complex but crudely worked hookah base to the second half of the eighteenth century.
During the short period towards the end of the first half of the eighteenth century, the globular hookah shape and the new flat-bottomed bellshape were produced and used simultaneously. As proof of the concurrence of competing forms, Zebrowski illustrates two hookah bases with almost identical decoration in Gold, Silver & Bronze from Mughal India, 1997: on p. 236, pl. 395 is a bell-shaped hookah and on p. 237, pl. 397 is a hookah of globular form. Zebrowski dates both these hookah bases, undoubtedly the work of the same artisan, to circa 1740.
Completing this brief historical survey demonstrating the
continued reappearance over time of the star design on different bidri shapes and vessels, is a nineteenth century ovoid box and cover in the Victoria and Albert Museum (20671883 IS), illustrated by Stronge on pp. 68-69, no. 50. Acquired in 1883 by Sir Caspar Purdon Clark, the Keeper of the Indian Museum in South Kensington and later Director of the Victoria and Albert Museum, this box is decorated with the star design on both the body and the cover.
The technique of bidriware is thought to have originated in the city of Bidar in the Deccan, which gave its name to this type of inlaid metalwork.2 Bidri is cast from an alloy of which the predominant component is zinc together with small amounts of copper and tin, to which is added varying proportions of lead. The bidri vessels and other objects are then inlaid or overlaid with silver, brass and sometimes gold.3 A mud paste containing sal ammoniac is applied which turns the alloy permanently a rich matte black in contrast to the glittering silver and other metals which are unaffected by the paste.4
Provenance:
Spink and Son, London, March 1983 Japanese/American Private Collection, 9th October 1989
Zarina and Antony Kurtz Collection
Published:
Spink and Son, London, Octagon Magazine, March 1983, Vol. XX, Number 1.
Mark Zebrowski, Gold, Silver & Bronze from Mughal India, 1997, pp. 235 and 236, cat. 394.
This hookah is accompanied by its original ring which is incredibly rare.
References:
1. Susan Stronge, Bidri Ware: Inlaid Metalwork from India, 1985, p. 50.
2. John Guy and Deborah Swallow (eds.), Arts of India: 1500-1900, 1990, p. 119; Stuart Cary Welch, India: Art and Culture 1300-1900, 1985, p. 322.
3. Ibid.
4. Ibid.
JADE JAMBIYA
IndIa (mughal), 18th century
length of dagger: 38 cm
length of hIlt: 12.3 cm
WIdth of hIlt: 6.6 cm
An elegant dark celadon jade dagger or jambiya with a curved watered steel blade. The thick waisted
baluster hilt has a symmetrical form, with thinly carved line borders edging both the identical pommel and quillons. The grip between is plain and the whole hilt is highly polished to show its wonderful colour. The curved double-edged blade has a central medial ridge along both sides, and cusped detailing can be seen to the top of the blade.
GEM-SET ROCK CRYSTAL CUP AND COVER
northern IndIa, early 19th century
heIght: 12 cm
dIameter: 7.2 cm
A carved, polished and gem-set rock crystal cup and cover, the cup of tall, elegant tumbler form with a circumference that widens gradually from the foot to the rim, the cover of gentle dome shape surmounted by a bud-shaped knop finial. The cup and cover are inlaid with gold scrolling tendrils in the kundan technique and set with diamonds, rubies and emeralds within chased gold collets to form flowers, leaves and buds on arabesque vines of gold. The gold has worn on some of the flowers and vines to reveal the underlying silver. The technique used is thus shown to be silver-gilt, where the floral patterns applied in silver are gilded by embellishments of gold.
The body of the cup is decorated with a frieze of tall vertical floral sprays that fit the gradually widening shape of the rock crystal surface. At the base of each floral spray is a tiny wine cup set with a cabochon ruby from which the plant rises,
thrusting upward and sprouting bifurcating branches that bear an ever greater abundance of leaves and flowers with increasing numbers of petals. A flower with a diamond centre set in an engraved collet that forms its simple ruffled petals, like a sunflower, is surmounted by a quatrefoil flower-head with a ruby centre and alternating diamond and emerald petals. Crowning the design is the largest and most elaborate flower with a ruby calyx, eight multi-coloured gem-set petals, a central diamond set in an engraved and chased collet, and a nodding finial of a single petal worn like a sarpech. The frieze of tall floral sprays is framed to the top at the rim and the bottom at the foot of the cup by a band of scrolling vines bearing quatrefoil flower-heads with circular petals set with rubies. The ruby flowers alternate with single emerald green leaves set on a diagonal to impart an anti-clockwise flow to the pattern.
The base of the cup is carved in the form of a stylised flower with a hatched centre and overlapping petals. The Ford inventory no. 1-12 is painted on the base in black.
The cover or lid of the cup is decorated with closely related gem-set floral arabesques arranged in quadripartite formation. Four floral sprays, each rising from a tiny mound and widening to occupy a quarter of the surface of the cover, flank the central knop finial. As the flowers seem to open and blossom in ever increasing profusion, spiky unadorned gold tendrils give way to single buds and leaves, that yield in turn to trefoil then quatrefoil flowers to impart a luxuriant effect of dense growth. The finial is ornamented with a six-petalled flower-head, each gem-set petal floating detached from the central circular gold collet where gadrooning frames the diamond.
A gem-set rock crystal covered cup with similar decoration and carved with lobes is in the collection of the Asian Civilisations Museum, Singapore.
A gem-set rock crystal covered bowl of closely related decoration to the Singapore covered cup and the present cup, is in the David Collection, Copenhagen. This is illustrated in Kjeld von Folsach, Art from the World of Islam in The David Collection, 2001, p. 238, no. 360. This is dated to the eighteenth century.
Rock crystal is a colourless and transparent form of quartz. It is very much harder and clearer than glass, making it a popular medium for the carving of luxury objects, boxes, vessels and jewellery. Amongst the most celebrated rock crystal objects from the Islamic medieval courts are the exquisite products of the Fatimid workshops. These have survived in relatively large numbers, mainly in European church treasuries. While rock crystal objects continued to be produced after the fall of the Fatimids in 1171, these works of art from other periods and regions have not generated the same level of interest amongst scholars and collectors.1
In Mughal India there was a great revival in the art of rock crystal carving. According to Pedro Moura Carvalho, Mughal interest in rock crystal is evident not only from the number of surviving pieces but also in the numerous references to the hardstone in contemporary sources such as Abu’l Fazl.2 Jahangir owned an unusual collection of rock crystal objects from different origins including Europe, where during the late Renaissance hardstone carving reached new heights.3 His treasures included boxes from Europe, a crystal cup supposedly from Iraq which he gave to Shah CAbbas I, and a crystal figure, possibly Chinese, that he received from the king of Bijapur.4 These varied objects stimulated the Mughal craftsmen to new heights of technical virtuosity during the reign of Shah Jahan. The kundan technique for the inlay of gold and gemstones ensured that the applied decoration of objects achieved a similarly high level of craftsmanship and design to match the superb quality of the carving.
Provenance:
Mr and Mrs Henry Ford II, acquired 1960
Kathleen DuRoss Ford (1940-2020), an accomplished photographer and former model, was married to Henry Ford II (19171987), the automotive tycoon and eldest grandson of Henry Ford I, from 1980 to 1987 when he passed away. Henry Ford II was the President of the Ford Motor Company from 1945-1960, CEO from 1945-1979, and Chairman of the Board Directors from 1960 to 1980. He is credited with reviving the fortunes of the company through innovation and an aggressive management style that yielded dividends. The iconic 1949 Ford was designed by his team called the “Whiz Kids”; 1,118,740 cars of this very successful model were sold.
Mrs Ford had homes in Palm Beach, Florida, Eaton Square in London, and Turville Grange in Oxfordshire. She was a generous host to a large group of international friends including Lily Tomlin and Margaret Thatcher, to whom she lent her Eaton Square house when Thatcher left Downing Street for the last time on 28th November 1990.
References:
1. Pedro Moura Carvalho, Gems and Jewels of Mughal India: Jewelled and Enamelled objects from the 16th to 20th centuries, 2010, pp. 54-56.
2. Ibid.
3. Ibid.
4. Ibid.
YOUNG AKBAR COUNSELLED BY AN ELDERLY MINISTER
IndIa (mughal), cIrca 1590
folIo:
heIght: 32.5 cm
WIdth: 23 cm
mInIature:
heIght: 25.8 cm
WIdth: 15 cm
Opaque watercolour heightened with gold on paper.
The painting is set within red and gold rules, and pale blue margins with a gold floral meander.
On the verso is a calligraphic panel, with eight lines of black nasta Cliq reserved against a gold ground with floral arabesques.
At the top of the album page is a later inscription “sultan sikandar lodi“ within a cartouche coarsely painted over the gold floral meander in a manner that clearly shows the cartouche was added later. The inscription, in what is certainly a later hand, wrongly identifies the prince as the Delhi Sultan Sikander Lodi (reigned 1489-1571).
The facial features of the young Akbar without a moustache are easily recognisable as are his characteristic wispy and wiry locks of hair that emerge from below his simple turban with an aigrette, seen in numerous other images of the young Akbar. A painting of the same period circa 1590-1595 at the Aga Khan Museum, Toronto, shows the young Akbar with the same features, hair and turban, practising calligraphy under the watchful tutelage of an elder scribe.1
The architectural setting of the painting is typically Mughal and quite unlike the architecture of the Delhi
Sultanate. The red sandstone palace bears a close resemblance to early Mughal palatial buildings such as the Agra Fort, Fatehpur Sikri, and the “Red Fort” of Shahjahanabad. Despite being grand palaces, these buildings incorporated shops and market stalls, which became progressively sparser as one passed through a series of gates into the exclusive royal areas. Thus, in this painting a monumental gate separates the street hawkers at the bottom from the courtiers thronging around the prince at the very centre of the picture. Amongst the many vendors standing outside the royal area is a woman depicted in front profile holding a basket of fruit or bread on her head. Her eyes glance cheekily at a royal equestrian guard who may be asking her to move along, or perhaps just chatting with a regular supplier to the royal court, a most charming and enlivening anecdotal detail.
Akbar is seated on a blue floral carpet leaning against a large cushion, within a red sandstone pavilion approached by marble steps. The walls of the pavilion are clad in brilliant white marble carved with chini kana niches containing longnecked glass vases (surahi). Thus, in a predominantly red sandstone palace complex, Akbar’s inner chamber seems illuminated by light. The dado is richly decorated with hexagonal tiles. A standing attendant wearing the Akbari fourpointed skirt of the period waves a chowrie (flywhisk) in one hand and holds other royal insignia wrapped in a cloth in the other hand. The gestures and direct eye contact shared by Akbar and the bearded senior minister show them deep in learned conversation. A large retinue of courtiers, attendants and guards wielding bows and arrows bustle around the central pavilion. The pale
green tiled floor decorated with stars on which they stand is characteristic of both Akbari architecture and painting.
This composition belongs to the artistic milieu of Akbar’s court and was painted during the formative years of Mughal painting. Stylistic parallels can be drawn between our painting and the illustrations of other early manuscripts, such as the Tutinama in the Chester Beatty Library, Dublin, dating from the 1580s. In particular, folio 66r resembles the present painting in its composition: a small pavilion with a carpeted interior stands within a walled terrace with geometric paving. Another folio which seems to come from the same manuscript series as the present painting and also depicting the daily activities of the Akbari royal court is in the Cleveland Museum of Art, acc. no. 2013.317.
Provenance:
Toby Falk (1942-1997)
Toby Falk was one of the foremost academics in the field of Indian painting. He was responsible for some of the most important academic texts on Indian and Islamic art and famously catalogued with Mildred Archer the collection of the India Office Library. Amongst other publications with Archer is India Revealed: The art and adventures of James and William Fraser 1801-35, based on the collections of James and William Fraser who went to India at the beginning of the nineteenth century and were extensive patrons of Company School works. Falk’s books are still considered essential reference material for scholars today.
Reference:
1. Illustrated in Jorrit Britschgi, “Some Aspects of Painting under Akbar”, in Gian Carlo Calza (ed.), Akbar: The Great Emperor of India, 2012, p. 66, fig. 37.
THAKUR PRATAP SINGH OF SAWAR ON A BLACK STALLION
IndIa (rajaSthan, SaWar), cIrca 1680
heIght: 33 cm
WIdth: 45 cm
Opaque watercolour on buff paper.
Inscribed with one line of largely effaced devanagari on the verso
Horses like elephants were feted and frequently depicted in the art of Sarwar, a small thikana in southeast Rajasthan located equidistant between Ajmer and Kotah. This Sawar equestrian portrait of a magnificent black stallion dwarfing its rider depicts the ruler Thakur Pratap Singh (reigned 1668-1705) but emphasises the importance of the animal.
The intensely black stallion is seen to dramatic effect against buff paper uncluttered by unnecessary colour or superfluous detail. Though the scale of the horse has been exaggerated to amplify its splendour, by implication Pratap Singh’s equestrian skills are also celebrated. His calm command of the powerful horse and his ability to possess, ride and master such a
large and fabulous beast, symbolise by extension his ability to govern and his right to rule, conveyed through the established conventions and meanings of equestrian portraiture.
Pratap Singh’s presence is made palpable, despite his reduced size, by the exquisite depiction of his fine features, drawn primarily through clear, delicate lines that resound against the plain buff ground. The face of the rider is here particularly sensitively observed, but in its individual elements, accoutrements and pose, is comparable to that of a painting of Thakur Pratap Singh on horseback with two attendants in the Ashmolean Museum (EA1993.37).1 In the present painting, Pratap Singh is accompanied by a single diminutive groom or attendant standing on the right, slightly recessed in the background, turning back to receive instructions from his master while brandishing a chowrie (flywhisk) and pointing towards the right as the direction to proceed. The groom is rendered as a line drawing with no colour and barely any shading or moulding of volume, but like Pratap Singh he is sensitively drawn and fully integrated into the structure of the painting and its tightly edited, characteristic Sawar colour palette of no colour, reduced colour and intense colour used in combination against a buff uncoloured ground.
Pratap Singh wears a pearl earring and a red turban, a shot of striking colour at the apex of the composition. He holds the reins of
the horse in his right hand brought close to his chest, while his left brandishes a delicate flowering branch, used as both ceremonial insignia and riding whip. Tucked into his short patka (sash) is a katar (thrust-dagger) in a red scabbard. His outfit is a colourless muslin tunic with finely delineated folds and a diaphanous skirt over striped trousers. The texture of the saddlecloth suggests that is it made of velvet with a scrolling arabesque picked out in gold. Pratap Singh’s mauve saddle is strapped by a thick band to the horse’s belly.
The stallion is primarily unadorned, leaving the impressive expanse of rich black to speak for itself, conveying power through bulk and opacity when so much of the rest of the picture is translucent or transparent. The eye of the horse has a penetrating gaze, with an intense black pupil against a grey iris. The horse fittings including the bridle are set with gems and fringed with pearls, while across the chest is a band of bells that would announce the horse’s approach with each canter. The bushy tail of the horse is depicted with thinner paint and wispy brushstrokes in contrast to the main body; individual hairs get finer toward the edges and tip. The belly and genitals are also rendered in a
lighter shade of smoky grey in order to clarify detail. The grey hooves are shown with light grey horseshoes held by nails, a marvellous detail imparting an impeccable finish. Both the horse’s feather aigrette and its hooves push against and burst through the ruled black lines and integral orange border of the painting, further emphasising how large the animal is. A final contrast of extreme delicacy is the patch of gently undulating ground dotted with small flowering shrubs and grasses on which the stallion stands.
The small court of Sawar, nestled between the more powerful states of Ajmer, Mewar and Kotah, was clearly of particular interest to the scholar and collector Toby Falk. Influences from each of these neighbours can be strongly felt in Sawar painting, which Falk was able to identity. The halfcoloured finish of the picture of the stallion is reminiscent of the Mewar painter known as “the Stipple Master”, while the fine lines used for shading draw upon painting from Kotah.
Provenance:
Charles Ewart, London, by 1980
Toby Falk (1942-1997)
Toby Falk was one of the foremost academics in the field of Indian painting. He was responsible for some of the most important academic texts on Indian and Islamic art and famously catalogued with Mildred Archer the collection of the India Office Library. Amongst other publications with Archer is India Revealed: The art and adventures of James and William Fraser 1801-35, 1989, based on the collections of James and William Fraser who went to India at the beginning of the nineteenth century and were extensive patrons of Company School works. Falk’s books are still considered essential reference material for scholars today.
Exhibited:
Whitechapel Gallery, 30th March-18th May 1980
Reference:
1. Indar Pasricha, “Paintings at Sawar and Isarda in the 17th Century”, Oriental Art, XXVIII, no. 3, 1982, p. 260, fig. 2.
A ROYAL ELEPHANT
IndIa (rajaSthan, SaWar), cIrca 1700
heIght: 22.5 cm
WIdth: 30.3 cm
Opaque watercolour heightened with gold on buff paper.
The verso plain with an erased inscription.
This portrait of a magnificently caparisoned, dark grey royal elephant, powerful yet genial and gentle, shows the great beast untethered and strolling against the plain buff ground that is characteristic of the Sawar school of painting.
Another characteristic of Sawar is the distinctive shade of rich orange that colours the elephant’s saddlecloth. This piquant tangerine shade may be considered a diagnostic feature of the school, especially when coupled with the plain ground that is repeatedly seen in Sawar pictures. The recognisable style is essentially that of partially coloured drawings, with areas of minimal shading to create volume, and jolts of strong colour that resound against the buff paper. Though red is used sparingly, seen on the painted ornaments on the elephant’s head and trunk, this easily recognisable orange shade is the preferred colour accent; here the orange combines beautifully with the dark shades of grey that impart weight and substance to the elephant’s body.
The linear Sawar style may be observed in the delicate lines of the animal. The creases and folds of the skin and the wispy hairs extending beyond the outlines of the body, are all finely delineated to create texture. The dark hide of the elephant lightens at the belly and genitalia, the top of the chest and the end of the trunk; this slight modulation of tone creates volume and visual interest,
reminding us that the Sawar painting technique is essentially a coloured drawing technique where every stroke of the brush counts.
The saddlecloth is secured by white ropes and gold chains with dangling bells. The elephant has a jewelled collar set with rubies and festooned with bells. The tusks are ringed and capped with gold. The elephant’s head ornament, attached by gold chains and rings, is a sarpech made of wild boar tusks that echo in miniature its own large tusks. On the raised left foot of the walking elephant is a chain to which he is normally tethered in the royal stable.
A drawing dating from circa 1680 of Thakur Pratap Singh of Sawar (reigned 1668-1705) on a similarly delineated elephant was published by Indar Pasricha in his seminal article that was influential in defining the characteristics of the Sawar school.1 Other Sawar paintings of elephants all tend, like here, to have orange saddlecloths; the orange is also used in court and garden scenes of the rajas and equestrian portraits.2
Painting from the small thikana of Sawar, located in southeast Rajasthan almost equidistant between Ajmer and Kotah and virtually on the borders of the larger states of Bundi and Mewar, was an area of abiding interest to the eminent scholar, Sotheby’s auctioneer and collector Toby Falk. As paintings appeared on the market, Falk was able to identify the Sawar school, something he very much enjoyed and was clearly excited by. The present painting comes from Falk’s own collection of masterpieces from the Sawar school which he helped to establish and was a pioneer in collecting.
The thikana of Sawar was founded by Shah Jahan in 1627 to reward Gokul Das, one of the Rajput nobles who fought with him in his rebellion against his father Jahangir in 1623, in the course of which Gokul Das had received eighty-four wounds, a
propitious number.3 Gokul Das was a great grandson of Maharana Uday Singh of Mewar, so the Sawar rulers are closely related to the Sisodia dynasty of Udaipur.
Bundi and Kotah were the closest major courts and there is a definite affinity between Sawar elephant drawings and those of Kotah. However, elements of the Mewar style at Udaipur can also be detected, specifically that of painting during the reign of Maharana Amar Singh (1698-1710) and the work of his leading artist, the “Stipple Master”. Amar Singh’s reign and his unusual taste as a patron of painting, and the active period of his great “Stipple Master”, coincided with the development of a distinct local style of painting at Sawar towards the end of Pratap Singh’s reign (1668-1705) which continued under his successor Raj Singh (1705-1730).
The initial identification of Sawar as a painting centre depended on the number of paintings clearly identified as being of Thakur Raj Singh of Sawar, the great grandson of Gokul Das. While some are fully coloured, for example the richly painted portrait of Maharaja Raj Singh illustrated in Andrew Topsfield, Visions of Mughal India: The Collection of Howard Hodgkin, 2012, pp. 210-211, cat. no. 89, a considerable proportion are left only partly coloured, such as another in the Hodgkin Collection illustrated in the same book by Topsfield, 2012, pp. 212-213, cat. no. 90. This is a celebrated and much published square painting of circa 1714 depicting Maharaja Raj Singh receiving a yogi in a garden full of birds. The crucial thing is that the painting is inscribed in devanagari on the reverse “Maharaja Raj Singh … it is from Sawar”, thus indisputably identifying both sitter and school. It is on buff paper, largely uncoloured or lightly coloured in areas, with shots of orange in the painting and forming the border. Topsfield’s observations on this painting illuminate characteristics applicable to much of the Sawar school:
“Using the uncoloured buff paper as its ground, this is a picture of exceptional charm, combining court painting conventions with the decorative freedoms of Rajasthani folk art. As Howard Hodgkin has remarked; ‘it has a peculiar combination of the naive and sophisticated, particularly in terms of scale.’”4
On pp. 216-217 of the same publication, cat. no. 91, Topsfield illustrates and discusses another Sawar painting in the Hodgkin Collection depicting Maharaja Raj Singh and his elephants. Once again Raj Singh is usefully identified by inscription and the lightly coloured drawing contains a multitude of elephants drawn in a manner much like our present painting, showing Kotah influence, but lightly coloured in the now established Sawar style showing Mewari influence of the “Stipple Master”. The distinctive tangerine is accompanied by an equally piquant olive green and a sharp acidic yellow, all of which enliven the buff ground. As Hodgkin observes: “The technical elaboration of the drawing itself suggests that it must have been made as a work of art in its own right rather than as a study for something else.”5
Topsfield describes another inscribed Sawar painting of Maharaja Raj Singh cosseted by his ladies from the Cynthia Hazen Polsky Collection now at the Metropolitan Museum of Art (inv. no. 2002.65ab) and exhibited at the Asia Society Museum, New York, in Andrew Topsfield (ed.), In the Realm of Gods and Kings: Arts of India, 2004, pp. 334-335, cat. no. 148. His observations on this picture reinforce our understanding of the Sawar school:
“Under Maharaja Raj Singh … the small court of Sawar in central Rajasthan saw a flowering of scenes of court life, painted in a manner that combines naive charm with a subtle refinement. Its spare, semi-coloured compositions show
affinities with similar developments at Udaipur under Maharana Amar Singh of Mewar … who was head of the Sisodia Rajput clan to which the Sawar chiefs belonged.”6
The partly coloured finish developed by the “Stipple Master” is discussed by Catherine Glynn in her chapter on “The Stipple Master” in Masters of Indian Painting II: 1650-1900, 2011, pp. 515-530. Glynn notes that the style of the “Stipple Master” first appeared when the artist would have been with the Mewar Maharana Amar Singh in Rajnagar, to where Amar Singh had been banished after his revolt against his father Maharana Jai Singh in 1691. Rajnagar is less than 40 km from Sawar and it seems quite possible that the Sawar style was imported by an artist from Rajnagar, probably one trained before 1698 when Amar Singh returned to Udaipur. However, in strong contrast to the eponymous stippling of the master, paintings from Sawar execute shading with very fine lines of a darker tone or black, almost as an engraving, showing clear influence from the drawing style of Kotah. All these features are to be found in the Sawar paintings collected by Toby Falk.
Provenance: Toby Falk (1942-1997)
References:
1. Indar Pasricha, “Paintings at Sawar and Isarda in the 17th Century”, Oriental Art, XXVIII, no. 3, 1982, p. 260, fig. 2. In this 1982 article, Pasricha separated the school of Isarda from that of Sawar. It is notable that Falk’s input into this research is acknowledged at the end of this article.
2. See examples sold at Christie’s London, 25th May 2017, lot 37; Bonhams New York, 23rd September 2021, lot 1217.
3. Jivan Lal Mathur, History of Sawar, 1977, quoted in Ann Grodzins Gold and Bhoju Ram Gujar, A Time of Trees and Sorrows, 2002, p. 64.
4. Andrew Topsfield, Visions of Mughal India: The Collection of Howard Hodgkin, 2012, p. 212.
5. Ibid., p. 216.
6. Andrew Topsfield (ed.), In the Realm of Gods and Kings: Arts of India, 2004, p. 334.
FOUR VIEWS OF A PLAYFUL YOUNG ELEPHANT
IndIa (rajaSthan, kotah), 1720-1730
folIo:
heIght: 20 cm
WIdth: 22 cm
Image:
heIght: 15.4 cm
WIdth: 21.4 cm
Ink and opaque watercolour heightened with gold on paper, the verso with a sketch of two entwined wrestlers and other vignettes.
A brave or foolhardy youth, lightly sketched and seen twice in the upper right corner, cavorts with a playful baby elephant, seen four times in the dynamic continuous narrative. The boy runs towards the elephant, tempting it with sweets and whipping up a frenzy of excitement before rushing away to avoid being crushed by its charge around the arena of play. The elephant wears a collar of golden bells that tinkle merrily to help the boy evade being trampled on in the fun and games. The artist of this lively sketch has skilfully captured the energy, movement and playful power of the rambunctious young elephant. On the bottom of the sheet, below the
main image, are the lightly drawn studies of two further elephants, one running towards the other that is standing still, further exercises in the depiction of elephants in motion by another hand.
This charming picture comes from the celebrated collection of Stuart Cary Welch, who published it in his catalogue for an exhibition of Indian Drawings and Painted Sketches: 16th through 19th centuries, 1976, pp. 9899, cat. no. 52. This exhibition began in the Asia House Gallery in the winter of 1976 as an activity of the Asia Society, New York, then toured the Fogg Art Museum, Cambridge, Massachusetts and the Asian Art Museum, San Francisco in the spring of 1977. In the exhibition catalogue, Welch writes that the drawing is by “another anonymous Kotah master deserving of posthumous acclaim.
He may have been apprenticed to the ‘Master of the Elephants’, whose hand can be identified in works well into the eighteenth century. That he knew the earlier artist's work is suggested by a copy ascribable to him of the Master's well-known picture of Ram Singh pursuing a rhinoceros. Here, however, he drew from life and the results are strikingly immediate.”1 Another painting attributed by Welch to the present artist is an elephant hunt, which he illustrates in a further Asia Society exhibition catalogue, Stuart Cary Welch with contributions by Mark Zebrowski, A Flower from Every Meadow: Indian Paintings from American collections, 1973, pp. 48-49, cat. no. 22. It is to be noted that in these exhibition catalogues published in the 1970s, Welch dates the pictures to circa 1745, but from the beginning of the loan to the Fogg Art Museum in 1983, he revises the date of the present elephant study to circa 1720-1730, dates that we now follow.
Building on Welch’s earlier work on Kotah artists, recent research by Milo Cleveland Beach has led to a comprehensive reassessment of the Kotah atelier at this period, including the artists responsible for many of the elephant paintings. Beach’s latest thoughts are summarised in his article, “Masters of Early Kota Painting”, pp. 459-478, in Milo Cleveland Beach, Eberhard Fischer and B. N. Goswamy (eds.) with Jorrit Britschgi (project director), Masters of Indian Painting II: 1650-1900, 2011. Beach introduced the idea of “master styles” associated with artists he called Painters A, B and C. Based on this new configuration of Kotah painting, the present sketch would now be associated with the master style of painters A or B, the latter who may be identified as Niju. As Beach explains in the introduction to his essay:
“Despite the fact that artists at this time felt little need to assert individual artistic personalities and were not honored by formal recognition of their names, some illustrations are attributable to particular painters (or groups of painters, often working over more than one generation, referred to in the lists as A, B and C). Thus, instead of isolating master painters - the Kota equivalent for the Mughal brothers Payag and Balchand; or for Bagta and Chokha, father and son painters at Devgarh - this essay introduces the idea of “master styles”. We are here examining great works created by painters whose individualityas defined and cultivated by the Mughal emperor Jahangir - was not of primary importance, and whose anonymous achievements were sometimes carried forward seamlessly, and often brilliantly by younger artists trained in their workshop.” 2
On the verso is a sketch of two entwined figures, probably wrestlers in a lock, referred to by Welch as paladins. There are several other small sketches around the figures, including a turban, two flowers, a mace, knuckle punches (vajra mushti) and wrestlers’ weights (nal).
Provenance:
Adrienne Minassian, New York, 1955 Stuart Cary Welch
Published:
Stuart Cary Welch, Indian Drawings and Painted Sketches: 16th through 19th Centuries 1976, pp.98-99, no. 52.
Marcus Fraser, Selected Works from the Stuart Cary Welch Collection of Indian and Islamic Art, 2015, pp.112-113, cat. no. 31.
Exhibited:
Indian Drawings and Painted Sketches: 16th through 19th Centuries, the Asia House Gallery, New York, 1976.
The Fogg Art Museum, Harvard University and the Asian Art Museum, San Francisco, 1977.
On loan to the Fogg Art Museum, Harvard University, from 1983, acc. no. 502. 1983, loan no. SCW. R79.
References:
1. Stuart Cary Welch, Indian Drawings and Painted Sketches: 16th through 19th centuries, 1976, p. 99.
2. “Masters of Early Kota Painting”, in Milo Cleveland Beach, Eberhard Fischer and B. N. Goswamy (eds.) with Jorrit Britschgi (project director), Masters of Indian Painting II: 16501900, 2011, p. 459.
RADHA AND KRISHNA MEETING AT NIGHT UNDER A LATE AUTUMN MOON
IndIa (guler or garhWal), cIrca 1790
heIght: 28.3 cm
WIdth: 18.6 cm
An illustration from a Baramasa (Songs of the Twelve Months) series.
Opaque watercolour heightened with gold on paper, the painting set within black and white margins and a bold red border.
Inscribed in devanagari on the verso: rit sharad
implying ritu sharad which translates to "autumn season", corresponding to the month of Ashvina and Kartika which ends in mid-November.
It is a cold evening under the light of a pale moon in a late autumn sky. Radha and Krishna are deep in conversation, seated high up on the rooftop terrace of a towering pavilion made of marble. Though aspects of love are the likely subject of their discussion, as the myriad experiences of love, loss and longing are explored in Baramasa paintings under the auspices of the changing seasons over the twelve months of the year, here the debate seems to be rigorously intellectual with Radha clearly holding her own against Krishna. She casually trails her
right hand over the delicate floral pietra dura inlays of the balcony while she makes a point with great precision using the hennaed fingers of her left hand. Krishna’s gesture with the fingers of his right hand almost touching as if holding a jewel or a flower, demonstrates the succinctness of his argument. They are well matched and though in this painting the lovers debate about love rather making it, they display an intimacy and a bond that the painter beautifully conveys.
Radha and Krishna are isolated high above two attendants seated below in the lowest chamber of the pavilion. The attendants are also deep in animated conversation, or perhaps just gossip, with gestures that echo those of the divine couple high above. The attendant on the left rests her hand on the marble jali balustrade in parallel to Radha above. The lower courtyard opens towards the viewer with jalis depicted on a widening perspective.
A blind at the top of the tower just below Radha and Krishna is rolled up to reveal sparingly carved chini kana panels. The top two empty niches give a sense of space, while the middle niches contain surahi (longnecked vases) and fruit on golden platters. The tall wall behind the two attendants is blank.
This Baramasa subject illustrates the sensitive emotions of lovers depicted in the cycle of poems describing the months of the year. It is also a fine example of painting from Guler,
which played such a key role in the development of Pahari painting. Pandit Seu, father of the famed and highly accomplished artists Manaku and Nainsukh, was a native of Guler. He established a dynasty of artists who brought about a change in the eighteenth-century style of painting that was to last into the nineteenth century. The artists of the first generation after Manaku and Nainsukh explored new themes and a favoured subject was the pleasures of each season.
A very similar Guler painting with Radha and Krishna seated in discussion on a rooftop terrace below a wintry moon with bare branches in the garden is illustrated in Bonhams, Islamic and Indian Art, 4th October 2011, lot 402.
Provenance:
Sotheby’s, Fine Oriental Manuscripts and Miniatures, 20th November 1986, lot 149 where it was catalogued as Garhwal. Sotheby’s, Oriental Manuscripts and Miniatures, 26th April 1991, lot 153. Private UK collection, 1991-present.
Acknowledgement:
We would like to thank Rukmani Kumari Rathore for her reading and interpretation of the inscription.
THE CLIMAX OF A LARGE ORGANISED HUNT
IndIa (punjaB hIllS, SIkh), 1820-1830
heIght: 36.6 cm
WIdth: 50.7 cm
Opaque watercolour heightened with gold on paper.
This frenetic painting captures the crucial moment at the end of a large, organised hunt. Many hours have been spent by a vast team of skilled hunters gradually driving quarry into a smaller and smaller area. Here at last, after a great coordinated effort, the master of the hunt who is the tall standing figure dressed in khaki in the lower left, raises his rifle high to finally give the signal for the hunters to fire their weapons. The corralled animals in the rocky terrain of rolling hills and low scrub include tigers, leopards, deer, boar and rabbits. Although the encircled animals seem to have their fates sealed, a tiger mauling a man in the bottom of the painting shows that it is not an entirely one-way affair.
This method of hunting is described by Adeela Qureshi de Unger in her book, The Hunt as Metaphor in Mughal Painting, 2022, pp. 76-77:
“The use of encircling manoeuvres to entrap considerable amounts of game was the traditional and preferred way of hunting among the Mughals. This method required the services of a large army of beaters, on foot or on horseback. They encircled a particular spot where the game was plentiful, then contracted the circle until the animals were surrounded by men of all sides. In Persian, the words qamargah and jerge were frequently used to describe this method of hunting and [T. T.] Allsen affirms that jerge was also used in the context of manoeuvres in warfare. In Sanskrit, this manner of taking game was referred to as mahakalya, and Rudradeva writes that ‘Mahakalya is that in which a large number of men encircle a forest and then coming in closer circles ultimately stop the flight of animals of various kinds and kill them with swords and other weapons. This can be “played” by kings only.‘”1
Qureshi observes that the qamargah was the conventional mode of hunting practised by both Chinghiz Khan and Timur and was favoured for its value as military training.2
The Sanskrit word mahakalya shows that the technique was also employed by ancient Hindu kings and princes and, as demonstrated by the present painting, still used by the Sikh rulers of the Punjab in the nineteenth century.
It is unusual to find a single standalone painting such as this from the Punjab Hills, unfettered from being part of a large narrative sequence or clearly linked to a particular court to celebrate the achievements and entertainments of a particular raja, and even more so for being on the ample scale of the present painting, which adds dramatically to its impact. The scene is a good illustration of the preference for the naturalistic rendition of animated life and nature in Pahari painting from the mid-eighteenth century onwards.
A painting of a Sikh ruler shooting wild boar in the Asian Art Museum,
San Francisco (1998.68), is of a similar scale and subject to our painting. However, whilst the San Francisco example is green throughout, our painting appears to show a greater influence of Rajput painting with the variegated blocks of strong colour suggesting our artist may have trained in Rajasthan.
Provenance:
Toby Falk (1942-1997)
Toby Falk was one of the foremost academics in the field of Indian painting. He was responsible for some of the most important academic texts on Indian and Islamic art and famously catalogued with Mildred Archer the collection of the India Office Library. Amongst other publications with Archer is India Revealed: The art and adventures of James and William Fraser 1801-35, 1989, based on the collections of James and William Fraser who went to India at the beginning of the nineteenth century and were extensive patrons of Company School works. Falk’s books are still considered essential reference material for scholars today.
References:
1. Adeela Qureshi de Unger, The Hunt as Metaphor in Mughal Painting, 2022, pp. 76-77. 2. Ibid.
MAHARAO RAM SINGH II HUNTING A TIGER
heIght: 48.3 cm
WIdth: 66.5 cm
Opaque watercolour heightened with gold on paper, within a narrow black border and red margins, the verso plain.
This large, impressive and finely detailed painting shows Maharao Ram Singh II of Kotah (reigned 1828-1866) hunting a tiger with a large entourage. The nimbated and resplendently dressed Ram Singh is seated on an elevated throne reached by steps at the prow of a royal pleasure barge on the river. He takes aim with his rifle at the huge tiger running through the bushes and scrub on the rocky shore. Though there seem to be three tigers shown, there is in fact only one tiger depicted through continuous narrative. Unlike lions who move in
a pride, tigers roam by themselves and do not move in packs so we can be certain it is a single beast. The tiger enters from the left after being driven towards the royal shooting party by beaters with drums and trumpets; takes a ferocious leap upwards at the centre of the painting which is the apex of the composition; then collapses in a blood-stained heap after being shot and killed by Ram Singh, its sharp teeth and fangs neutralised. The monstrous size of the tiger he has shot proclaims Ram Singh’s hunting prowess, while the narrative of the leaping tiger shows his skill at taking aim at a rapidly moving target.
Maharao Ram Singh II of Kotah ruled from 1828 until 1866. His rule faced increasing turmoil as the British progressively interfered with the politics of the state. Despite this he was a keen patron of the arts and perhaps the last great patron of Rajasthani court painting. Ram Singh was particularly interested in his artists
IndIa (rajaSthan, kotah), cIrca 1840
recording his day-to-day exploits, whether they were official court ceremonies and processions or his pastimes including numerous hunting scenes. It is also notable that many of these paintings are in a large format like the present painting. A similarly large painting of the Maharao in procession with a delegation of British officers was sold at Sotheby’s, London, 27th October 2021, lot 148.
A closely related painting of a tiger hunt of Ram Singh II dated circa 183040 is in the Cleveland Museum of Art (acc. no. 1991.168). Although smaller than the present composition, both paintings show the Maharao shooting a tiger against a steep rocky backdrop from his boat with a very
similar treatment of the figures and vegetation. The Maharao’s boat accompanied by a group of smaller vessels, including some carrying dancers and musicians, is found in the Cleveland painting as well as another painting of Ram Singh II at the Gangaur Festival in the Sainsbury Centre, University of East Anglia (acc. no. 580). Another large painting of Ram Singh II hunting tigers was part of the Ann and Gordon Getty Collection which was sold at Christie’s, New York, 24th October 2022, lot 1146.
Provenance:
Anon sale, Sotheby’s, London, 11th July 1973, lot 172
Estelle Osband Collection
MAHARAO RAM SINGH II SHOOTING TIGERS AND WILD BOAR
IndIa (kotah), 1830-1840
heIght: 32.5 cm
WIdth: 52.2 cm
Brush, red and brown ink over black chalk on paper.
Inscribed in devanagari in blue ink on the recto with an identification of the scene.
On the verso are architectural and figural studies in brush and black ink.
Maharao Ram Singh II of Kotah (reigned 1828-1866) is seated high up in a tree machan (hunting platform), shooting at tigers and wild boar with a matchlock rifle. Ferocious tigers and scuttling wild boar rampage around the dry, rocky and scrubby landscape with short trees, many with bare branches, characteristic of the Kotah landscape seen in so many of the paintings and drawings from the royal atelier The dryness of the scrubland is accentuated by the need for a brick well to provide water for the hunters, raised up by buckets on a pulley system. Wild boar are huddled near the well, perhaps in search of a drink in the parched landscape.
Maharao Ram Singh II is the same Kotah ruler seen in cat. no. 31 of the present catalogue; a study of both the painting and the drawing, as well as related published examples,
reveals a great deal about the hunting methods of the Rajasthani rulers. While the pictures portray Ram Singh as a great hunter and excellent shot, the techniques of the hunt such as the use of the shooting platform always ensure the safety of the ruler. He is never exposed to immediate danger, unlike the beaters that flush the animals out of the landscape for the Maharao to shoot from the relative safely of a boat or an elevated platform. In this drawing, he takes aim at an immense growling tiger that leaps towards the platform. The large scale of the animals increases the sense of danger that the Maharao faces in this drawing and hence his heroism and hunting prowess, but a careful reading of the picture reveals the safeguards built into this structured method of hunting.
Standing behind the nimbated ruler is an attendant with a ready loaded rifle to do a quick exchange with Ram Singh’s rifle when it runs out of shot and gunpowder. The attendant then loads up the empty rifle in turn, ready for the next round. In addition to safety and efficiency, shooting from a machan also provides a level of comfort not experienced when hunting on foot or on horseback. A hunter can sit in a machan from early evening to late at night, waiting for quarry.
Provenance: Sven Gahlin, acquired in 1997
THE BULAND DARWAZA (LOFTY GATE) AT FATEHPUR SIKRI
IndIa (agra), cIrca 1820
heIght: 43.5 cm
WIdth: 57.1 cm
Opaque watercolour on paper with pencil, pen and grey ink, heightened with white and framed by a black lined border.
The paper is watermarked, “W. Turner & Son”.
Fatehpur Sikri (The City of Victory), the chief architectural monument of the Mughal emperor Akbar (reigned 1556-1605), was the capital city of the Mughal empire before it was abandoned in the 1580s in favour of Agra, perhaps due to the problem of water shortages. Built around 1571, primarily of red sandstone, it displays the syncretistic style of early Mughal, that is Akbari, architecture which synthesizes features from earlier Timurid, Persian and Indian indigenous styles.1 Though Akbar moved the imperial Mughal court to Agra to better administer his growing empire, Fatehpur Sikri continued to be an important stop for traders and was often inhabited by large crowds of merchants from India, Persia and much further afield, which enriched the empire through commerce.
The Buland Darwaza, or Lofty Gate, is considered the greatest of all Mughal gateways, particularly because of its immense size, standing at an overall height of 53.6 metres. The triumphal gateway marks the south entrance to Akbar’s great Badshahi Masjid (Jami Masjid or Imperial Mosque). Construction began in 1575 and it was completed in 1601. The monument mixes red and buff-coloured sandstone, with selective marble surfaces on the facade primarily for the carving of inscriptions. The composition of the gateway incorporates stepped tiers bearing chattris (domed kiosks) and powerful trefoil crenels.
The gateway is approached by a magnificent, steeply ascending and theatrically dramatic flight of stairs as depicted in this watercolour.
The stairs, which fan outwards in a bold heightening of the drama, draw the viewer powerfully towards the lofty portal. On approaching the top of the forty-two steps the visitor, having ascended a daunting incline of 45 metres, is met by the vast iwan surrounded by the celebrated calligraphic pantheistic inscriptions which frame the grand entrance.2 It is here that the visitor understands the true meaning of the monument, for it was built primarily to commemorate Akbar’s subjection of Gujarat in 1573. As Christopher Tadgell observes, it was meant to be seen rather than used.3
Akbar’s Mughal empire was a crucible of religious diversity. His syncretic approach to religion allowed for the incorporation of various faiths into the imperial culture and governance. In parallel and in tandem with the syncretistic architecture of Fatehpur Sikri, in 1582 Akbar propounded his new syncretic religion, the Din-i Ilahi
The wide-ranging inscriptions on the facade of the Buland Darwaza express this religious diversity and also the depth of Akbar’s spiritual knowledge.
John Seyller has observed that the inscriptions on the Buland Darwaza also strengthened connections to the Chishti religious order.4 Qur’anic verses covering some marble surfaces of its facade were laid out by the calligrapher Ahmad al-Chishti, a follower of the Sufi saint Shaykh Salim Chishti; the verses memorably proclaim the words of Jesus (Isa) son of Mary (Maryam) describing the world as only ephemeral and likening it to a bridge to be crossed over by those seeking eternal afterlife.5 Verses from the Qur’an carved in naskh were prepared by Khwaja Hussain
Chishti, another follower of Shaykh Salim Chishti, while Ahmad al-Chishti’s inscriptions from the Surah Az-Zumar are carved in thuluth, with the calligrapher’s name mentioned right at the beginning.
Provenance:
The Collection of H. J. Allcroft at Stokesay Court, Ludlow, Shropshire
Herbert Allcroft was the grandson of Jeremiah Allcroft who went into partnership with the glove-makers, Messrs J & W Dent & Co. Their success allowed Herbert to travel the world in some style. His trips were made at the peak of the British Empire towards the end of the nineteenth century; with a youthful exuberance he collected an eclectic mixture of works of art as well as tourist mementos from his trips which blended into the interiors at Stokesay Court upon his return.
Stokesay Court was the memorable setting for the 2007 Joe Wright film Atonement based on the novel by Ian McEwan and starring Keira Knightley and James McAvoy.
Sotheby’s, London, Stokesay Court, 28th September 1994, lot 689 Spink and Son, London, 28th September 1994, bought slip no. 4500, stock no. IS.2.937
Private Swiss Collection, purchased from Spink and Son on 14th October 1996, invoice no. ISL 7702
Private French Collection Francesca Galloway, March 2024
Exhibited:
Spink and Son Ltd, A Journey Through India: Company School Pictures, Wednesday, 9th October to Friday 1st November 1996, pp. 28 and 29, cat. no. 11.
References:
1. Ebba Koch, Mughal Architecture: An Outline of its History and Development (1526-1858), 1991, p. 43.
2. Christopher Tadgell, The History of Architecture in India: From the Dawn of Civilization to the End of the Taj, 1990, p. 246.
3. Ibid.
4. John Seyller, Indian Painting: Intimacy and Formality, 2024, p. 35.
5. Ibid.
Entries from H. J. Allcroft's travel journal giving distances travelled and an inventory of some of the purchases made in India (Stokesay Court Archives)
Photographs courtesy of Stokesay Court Archives
THE GATEWAY TO THE TAJ MAHAL
IndIa (agra), cIrca 1820
heIght: 43.2 cm
WIdth: 57.3 cm
Opaque watercolour on paper with pencil, pen and grey ink, heightened with white and framed by a black lined border.
The paper is watermarked, “W. Turner & Son”.
This watercolour depicts the Gateway to the Taj Mahal flanked by the Masjid (mosque) in the distance to the left, and the resthouse to the right. Part of the Taj Mahal itself and the water tank can be seen through the central arch. Alongside the Taj Mahal, construction on the Gateway began in 1632, one year after the tragic death of Shah Jahan’s beloved wife Mumtaz Mahal in childbirth in 1631, and the entire complex of the Taj and its flanking monuments was completed in 1643.1
Embedded in the southern portion of the wall that surrounds the large Taj Mahal complex, this sandstone and marble edifice, also known as the Darwaza-i rauza (Gate of the Mausoleum), serves as the primary entrance to the tomb complex and opens onto an expansive quadripartite garden that has paradisiacal associations.2 The imposing structure is aligned strictly with the mausoleum proper, which sits at the opposite side of the compound, 275 metres to the north.3
The Gateway rises to more than 30 metres high. It is richly embellished by gemstones set into white marble in the spandrels of the arches, and black marble set into white marble in the frame of the central vaulted iwan. The gemstones depict floral arabesques, while the black marble has been used with consummate skill to form inscriptions from the Qur’an. These inscriptions are the great glory of this Gateway and their beautiful design was executed by the same artist, Amanat Khan,
whose name is included in the inlaid inscriptions of the Taj.4 The renowned Amanat Khan was the great master calligrapher for Akbar’s tomb. The use of his talents testifies to the close relationship between Shah Jahan and his grandfather, while underlining the Mughal love of tradition.
The combination of the calligraphy and floral designs on the Gateway is highly symbolic. The calligraphy expresses the meaning of the Qur’an whilst the floral designs are symbolic of the Islamic concept of Paradise as a garden.5 This is underlined by the fact that the visitor passes through the Gateway into the garden of the Taj Mahal. Laid out along the lines of the classic Persian chahar bagh or four-part garden quartered by two intersecting water channels, the garden symbolises the grounds of Paradise and the water channels, the rivers of Paradise.6
Provenance:
The Collection of H. J. Allcroft at Stokesay Court, Ludlow, Shropshire
Sotheby’s, London, Stokesay Court, 28th September 1994, lot 689
Spink and Son, London, 28th September 1994, bought slip no. 4500, stock no. IS.2.937
Private Swiss Collection, purchased from Spink and Son on 14th October 1996, invoice no. ISL 7702
Private French Collection Francesca Galloway, March 2024
Exhibited:
Spink and Son Ltd., A Journey Through India: Company School Pictures, Wednesday, 9th October to Friday 1st November 1996, pp. 30 and 31, cat. no. 12.
References:
1. John Seyller, Indian Painting: Intimacy and Formality, 2024, p. 37.
2. Ibid.
3. Ibid.
4. Janice Leoshko, “Mausoleum for an Empress”, pp. 53-87 in Pratapaditya Pal, Janice Leoshko, Joseph M. Dye III and Stephen Markel, Romance of the Taj Mahal, 1989, p. 58.
5. Christopher Tadgell, The History of Architecture in India: From the Dawn of Civilization to the End of the Taj, 1990, p. 242.
6. Ibid.
FOXTAIL MILLET (PANICUM ITALICUM)
IndIa (company School), early 19th century
heIght: 52.7 cm
WIdth: 37.2 cm
Watercolour and pencil on paper watermarked, “J Whatman”.
Inscribed in pencil at lower left:
Panicum italicum
A botanical study of a Foxtail Millet (Panicum italicum or Setaria italica) featuring depictions of the stems, leaves and seedheads at various stages of growth.
To the bottom left and next to the pencilled text are two accurately observed studies of seeds and seedheads. An opened seedpod painted in vibrant green starts a row of studies of further closed pods, a flower and then a small seedhead. Below is a similar group, but in an ochre yellow, no doubt depicting the seeds when they have ripened. Framing this is a single stem, leaf and seedhead from a ripened plant. The large brown seedhead bends slightly, the individually painted pods covered in fine hairs. The weight of the seedhead bends the golden stem from which it grows and a single leaf with a raised spine, snapped in half, rises at an angle.
To the right, a younger pair of sprays can be seen. Their thicker rich green stems rise upwards, from which
grow long tapering leaves to the top, all with a single central spine. They all bend or fold under their own weight. One stem has snapped near its base, the top having fallen and then snapped again. This artistic device adds a playful realism to the study, which otherwise floats against a plain ground. The change in colour as well as the tapering sections of the stem have been accurately observed to the snapped base, where the roots have been individually depicted, filling the surrounding space. Additional snapped leaves can also be seen further down the stems, again helping to convey an air of naturalism. One stem shows part of a darker green seedhead halfway up complete with fine hairs, whilst the other spray has a fully grown seedhead at the end of the stem, again bending under its own weight. It is larger and riper and thus shows traces of the warmer green and golden tones that would indicate this.
Foxtail Millet (Panicum italicum or Setaria italica) is an annual grass species with slim, vertical, leafy stems, which can reach a height of over a metre. It has been widely cultivated since ancient times, particularly in Asia, where it has been one of the most important crops, providing a staple food source in many regions and eras. Archaeological evidence from the Yellow River in Cishan, China indicates that it has been cultivated and consumed by humans for the last eight thousand years. In India it remains an important food crop
and goes by various names, such as kangni in Hindi and kaon dana in Bengali.
The painting of subjects from the natural world by Indian artists for British patrons began in the 1770s. The first paintings of botanical specimens were commissioned by Dr James Kerr, a Scottish surgeon stationed in Bengal who arrived in India in 1772 and sent a group of drawings and some specimens of plants back to Scotland as early as 1773. In the late 1770s and early 1780s Sir Elijah Impey, the Chief Justice of Bengal, and his wife Lady Impey employed three Patna artists to create an extensive series of watercolours of flora and fauna. The production of these studies increased greatly in the early nineteenth century, and in addition to private patronage, Indian artists producing these remarkable paintings could also find work with the East India Company.
For other examples of similar botanical watercolours see Mildred Archer, Natural History Drawings in the India Office Library, 1962. Also see Stuart Cary Welch, Room for Wonder: Indian painting during the British period, 1760-1880, 1978, pp. 46-47, no. 12.
Provenance: Stuart Cary Welch, acquired before 1983
Exhibited: On loan to the Fogg Art Museum, Harvard University, 1983.
A NORTHERN SHOVELER
IndIa (company School), 19th century
heIght: 28.2 cm
WIdth: 44.5 cm
A watercolour depicting a male Indian duck, probably a Northern Shoveler (Spatula clypeata), facing right and balanced on a small strip of land against a plain background.
The waterfowl is painted with a dark sky blue head. Tiny and delicate darker blue lines follow the contours of the skull and neck suggesting texture and adding a slice of realism to what is otherwise a simplified representation. Its yellow and black eye looks directly out at the viewer, engaging us. The black and grey beak tapers inward before widening and ending at a point. His feathered body has a rich terracotta
undercarriage and he is supported on a pair of short burnt orange legs and webbed three-toed feet. His multicoloured wings are painted in shades of olive green, turquoise, grey and white and end to the left in three large horizontal feathers. Delicate darker lines that can be seen to the head also cover the body, again giving an impression of texture and realism. The duck stands on a section of shore or dirt ground. The northern shoveler is slightly smaller than a mallard and has a dark green head, which can appear blue in certain lights. It has a shovel-like bill, which allows the bird to feed on tiny plankton.
The eighteenth and nineteenth century saw a tradition emerge in Indian watercolour painting of formal studies of flora and fauna, due to the patronage of artists by officers of the East India Company. Indian artists sought to satisfy their patrons’ European tastes, scientific interests and
sense of discovery. The artists, some of whom had previously trained in late-Mughal techniques of painting, evolved their styles to create largescale images of India’s flora, fauna, people and landscape. They catered to British tastes by introducing the concepts of perspective and realism into traditional Indian painting and produced many fine works, which served as an invaluable record of colonial India.
Provenance:
Toby Falk (1942-1997)
Toby Falk was one of the foremost academics in the field of Indian painting. He was responsible for some of the most important academic texts on Indian and Islamic art and famously catalogued with Mildred Archer the collection of the India Office Library. Amongst other publications with Archer is India Revealed: The art and adventures of James and William Fraser 1801-35, 1989, based on the collections of James and William Fraser who went to India at the beginning of the nineteenth century and were extensive patrons of Company School works. Falk’s books are still considered essential reference material for scholars today.
RAMA AND LAKSHMANA FERRIED IN A RIVERBOAT
IndIa (Bengal, calcutta), cIrca 1860
heIght: 17.5 cm
WIdth: 30.2 cm
An illustration to a Ramayana series.
Opaque watercolour on watermarked European blue tinted paper.
Rama and Laskhmana are seated with two sages and a wealthy merchant on a narrow riverboat, propelled along the shallow waters by a standing boatman who pushes against the bottom of the river with a long pole. This story, which is not in Valmiki’s Ramayana, comes from the Tulsi Das version of the Ramayana, the Ramcharitamanas, which was popular in Bengal. Tulsi Das (1532-1623) was an Awadhi poet and philosopher, born during the reign of Akbar in the present day Banda District of Uttar Pradesh. He wrote twelve books and is considered the greatest of all Hindi poets. Tulsi Das is regarded as an incarnation of Valmiki, the author of the Ramayana, written in Sanskrit.
The crossing of the river depicted in this painting is the conclusion of a celebrated episode from the Ayodha Kanda (Book One) of the Ramcharitamanas. Rama arrives at the bank of the Ganga and calls for the boat but the boatman surprises him with this answer:
“I know your magic power: everyone says that the dust of your lotus feet is a charm for making man. A rock on which it fell became a beautiful woman, and wood is no harder than stone! Should my boat in like manner be turned into a sage’s wife, the ferry will be closed and the boat lost, which is the support of my whole family. I have no other means of living. If, my lord, you are bent on crossing the river, you must allow me first to wash your feet.
“After bathing your feet, I will take you on board, but I will not accept any toll. I tell you the truth, O Rama, swearing by yourself and Dasaratha – Lakshmana may shoot me with his arrows, but I will not take you across, gracious lord, until I have bathed your feet.”
On hearing the ferryman’s rude but loving words, the merciful Rama smiles and agrees to have his feet washed. He says gracefully with a smile:
“Do anything to save your boat; bring water at once and bathe my feet; time has been lost; take me across”.
The gracious Lord thus made a request of a boatman; even
he who by one thought on whose name mankind is transported across the boundless ocean of existence, and for whose three strides the whole universe did not suffice. The River Ganga rejoiced on beholding his toenails.
This painting was painted for an unknown British patron by one of Calcutta’s leading professional painters on European watermarked paper dating from the late 1850s. His work is faithful to the imagery of the Hindu gods and their epics that was current in Calcutta, a largely Hindu city, at the time they were made. His work was also influenced by the theatrical performances and street fairs that coincided with the various religious festivals of the calendar year.
A painting from Chapra, headquarters of Saran, a district north of the Ganges from Patna, in the India Office Library, depicting the moment before Rama steps onto the ferry, is illustrated in Mildred Archer, Company Paintings in the India Office Library, 1972, pl. 43. In this painting, the ferryman has placed a basin in front of Rama and requests respectfully to be allowed to wash his feet. Rama, Lakhsmana and the sage that accompanies them all wear wooden sandals called padukas
Four Indian Bengal watercolours dating to circa 1860 from the same manuscript from Terence McInerney are in the Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art, Cornell University, object nos. 2011.100.002, 2011.100.006, 2011.100.007 and 2011.100.008.
Provenance: Terence McInerney
northern IndIa (rajaSthan, proBaBly jaIpur), early 18th century
length: 490 cm
WIdth: 95 cm
A block-printed, mordant-dyed and resist-painted cotton tent hanging (qanat) with a design of a tall and elegant floral spray within a multicusped arch. The stem rises from a leafy mound at the base of the design to shoot upwards to a towering height, bearing leaves and poppy flowers emerging in bud or bursting into full bloom, seen in nodding side-profile to the left and right and crowned by a flower-head of radiating petals to the top. From the calyx of each poppy dangles a pair of hyacinth-like stamen clusters. The tall plant is flanked by two smaller flowering plants with lily-like flowers.
arabesques. The narrow vertical borders are decorated with inverted omega shapes of green serrated leaves enclosing red trefoils. A red panel with a trellis of leaves and flowers framed by a scrolling border above anchors the design at its base.
This tent hanging is part of a wellknown series of chintzes, examples of which are held by important museums and private collections world-wide. The qanat panels would originally have formed the interior of at least one, or possibly two, spectacular tents, providing the decoration for a piece of royal temporary architecture that would almost certainly have been plain red on the outside.1 The Mughal imperial court was a peripatetic court that travelled regularly and the emperors had entire portable cities created from textiles in the form of camps with tents for every purpose. The court’s audience rooms,
petitioners from a distance and is likely to have been destined for a public hall to make an impression on the subjects of the rulers.
According to Joseph M. Dye, who writes of a tent hanging from the group in the collection of the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, François Bernier notes in 1664 that the royal enclosure of Aurangzeb’s camp was surrounded by fabric screens or tent walls seven or eight feet in height: “These kanates are of strong cloth which was lined with chittes [chintz] or cloths painted with portals with a great vase of flowers”.2 The emperor’s private quarters were enclosed by small qanats, while “beautiful chittes of painted flowers” lined the interiors of other tents. Bernier further noted the construction method of wooden posts staked into the ground in pairs ten paces apart, one on the inside of the tent and one on the outside, leaning against each other for stability and the cloth screens held fast by ropes attached to the stakes.3 qanats in a private collection in London, the attachments for the support poles
Museum of Fine Arts, 2001, p. 467, cat. no. 224; two panels and a slanting fragment in the Collection A.E.D.T.A., Association pour l’Etude et la Documentation des Textiles d’Asia, Paris, in Krishna Riboud, Amina Okada and Marie-Hélène Guelton, Le Motif Floral dans les Tissus Moghols: Inde XVIIe et XVIIIe siècles, 1995, pls. 1, 2 and 3; the Tapi composite tent-hanging in Ruth Barnes, Steven Cohen and Rosemary Crill, Trade, Temple & Court: Indian Textiles from the Tapi Collection, 2002, pp. 160-161, no. 62; and two panels in the Calico Museum of Textiles, Ahmedabad, in John Irwin and Margaret Hall, Indian Painted and Printed Fabrics: Historic Textiles of India in the Calico Museum, Volume I, 1971, p. 30, no. 20, pl. 10.
Provenance:
Robert Kime (1946-2022)
The largest from this group of qanats is the composite tent-hanging now in the Tapi Collection in Surat, composed of six separate floral panels stitched together with four corner fragments and additional border strips. In her analysis of the Tapi hanging, Rosemary Crill observes that all the panels have sloping tops to fit neatly with their matching counterparts that would have formed the opposite inner wall The two longest panels that make up this arrangement are 450 cm long and would have met at the highest part of the tent. According to Crill, several more pieces of this length are known. qanat must be one of the tallest pieces to have survived and originally destined to hang from the apex of the tent.
Published examples include the Virginia Museum panel, in Joseph The Arts of India: Virginia
Robert Kime was a British interior decorator who rose to eminence in the profession through a unique combination of antique dealing, textile collecting and creating rooms with a comfortable, understated and timeless elegance that respected layers of history and looked perfectly imperfect as if organically grown through the generations. Kime worked on the homes of King Charles III, Daphne Guinness, Andrew Lloyd Webber and the Duke of Beaufort, amongst others.
This tent panel used to hang in Kime’s home in France, La Gonette. Kime said in an interview with House & Garden that he “did not know how you describe romance actually. But some objects just have it. They just have something that is more than themselves.” This qanat is a work of art with that indefinable and undeniable romance.
References:
1. Ruth Barnes, Steven Cohen and Rosemary Crill, Trade, Temple & Court: Indian Textiles from the Tapi Collection, 2002, p. 160.
2. Joseph M. Dye III, The Arts of India: Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, 2001, p. 467.
3. Krishnâ Riboud, Amina Okada and MarieHélène Guelton, Le Motif Floral dans les Tissus Moghols: Inde XVIIe et XVIIIe siècles, 1995, pl. 2.
4. Veronica Murphy in Robert Skelton et al, The Indian Heritage: Court Life and Arts under Mughal Rule, 1982, pp. 84-85, no. 212, discussed in relation to a panel lent by Lisbet Holmes to the exhibition.
5. Barnes, Cohen and Crill, 2002, p. 160.
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Published by Simon Ray
First published November 2024
Design by Peter Keenan
Photography by Richard Valencia
Repro by Richard Harris
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