This short message to inform readers that this blog will not be updated for the foreseeable future. All previous posts remain available, so if you want to get started in Islamic art History and Market, I recommend the following:
I put a lot of care and effort in writing each post, and I am not willing to compromise on quality just to produce content. So, this is goodbye for now! I am not excluding posting again at some point, but for now, life has other plans for me and I won’t be able to free the time needed to write interesting and insightful texts.
Finally, and most importantly, I wish to thank all the readers who have been following this blog and have contributed, one way or the other, to its success. Take care, stay curious, be happy!
Bowl, Iraq, 10th century MET Museum, NY (1977.126)
Welcome back dear reader of this humble blog, I hope you had a good summer! Autumn is already here, and with that, London Islamic week is arriving quickly.
A short disclaimer before we start: this blog article is coming out very late, is shorter and a rougher than planned. I caught a bad cold last week and have been completely unable to get any work done for several days. Instead of completely abandoning the writing, I decided to publish an “as is” version. Hopefully this will still be informative, and I will review the results later on.
This season, 8 auctions will be held between the Wednesday 25th and the Tuesday 31st October, as follow:
Sotheby’s 18th to 27th October, online: “The Edith & Stuart Cary Welch Collection”, 260 lots
Sotheby’s 25th October, AM: “The Edith & Stuart Cary Welch Collection”, 130 lots
Sotheby’s 25th October, PM: “Art of the Islamic World & India”, 157 lots
Christie’s 26th October, “Art of the Islamic and Indian Worlds including Rugs and Carpets”, 215 lots
Christie’s 27th October, “An Eye Enchanted: Indian Paintings from the Collection of Toby Falk”, 152 lots
Roseberys 30th October: “Antiquities, Islamic & Indian Arts”, 542 lots (including 67 antiquities and 21 contemporary)
Chiswick 31st October, AM: “Property of a European Collector, part VI”, 84 lots
Chiswick 31st October, PM: “Islamic & Indian arts”, 354 lots
Some will have noticed I have left Plakas auctions out of this review, despite them having a sale scheduled on the 24th. Plakas have no named expert, and the authenticity a number of objects presented in the catalogue is highly questionable. They are also plagiarising the work of known experts, namely the complete description of a near complete late 12th c. Abbasid Qur’an sold at Artcurial earlier this year. Plakas is selling one page of this manuscript and just copied and pasted Artcurial text, including the provenance. This is wrong on many levels and actions are being taken as I write, so I will not discuss this further.[efn_note]Thank you to the Artcurial team for confirming this information, including the fact that the provenance of the page sold at Plakas is not the same as the rest of the manuscript.[/efn_note]
Nushaba recognises Alexander, Persia, 15th c, Christie’s 26/10, lot 57
Because Bonhams delayed their previous auction, they will hold their next one on the 14th November and their online sale from the 11th till the 15th November. Separating themselves from their competitors has worked quite well, achieving the second-highest result since 2010 with the sale of Tipu Sultan’s bedchamber sword. If you want to know more about it, check the Top 20 of the most expensive Islamic art objects ever sold, part 1 and part 2.
Lastly, and before jumping in the auctions, let’s note that this Islamic week is Beatrice Campi’s last at Chiswick auctions. Beatrice built the Islamic and Indian department from scratch 6 years ago and has positioned the house as a solid player on the London market for affordable art. The future is now very uncertain for the department, as finding a replacement for Beatrice is proving to be a struggle, but I wish to congratulate Beatrice on 6 beautiful years, and I cannot wait to see what she’ll do next. In the same vain, Behnaz Atighi Moghaddam, head of sales at Christie’s, has now gone on personal leave, and corridor conversations are questioning the future structure of the Islamic art department.
Tinted drawing, Benares, c. 1880, Chiswick 31/10, lot 108
Beautiful Objects and Hefty Prices
Sotheby’s opens this Islamic week with 120 lots, on top of which is an Abbasid astrolabe, maybe made in Baghdad circa 900, valued at £1,500,000-2,500,000. The artefact comes with an Egyptian and European provenance and a well written notice. I have little opinion when it comes to astrolabes but given the high estimate, I am quite interested to follow the sale. This is most likely a museum piece which might interest institutions of the Gulf, so we might see some action.
Safavid Qur’an, 983H/ 1575-76, Sotheby’s 25/10, lot 21 (detail)
Christie’s biggest entry is a 16th century Safavid ‘Palmette and Bird’ carpet, valued at £2,000,000-3,000,000, from the collection of baron Edmond de Rothschild, previously published and presented several time at auctions. It was sold most recently at Sotheby’s New York in 2013 for $1,930,500, so 10 years later, this carpet might break records.
Chiswick and Roseberys thankfully maintain their prices. Roseberys highest valued object is a Still Life by the Indian artist F.N. Souza dated 1986, valued £30,000-50,000. Roseberys has slowly but surely been including more contemporary pieces in their Islamic and Indian art catalogues, but having a contemporary painting as the top lot is unusual, so I am curious to see what repercussion this might have on future auctions. The second most expensive lot is the full book collection of Pr JM Rogers, Islamic art historian and pioneer, who passed away in 2002. This includes around 900 books, valued at £15,000-20,000, which will most likely be bought by a museum or a library. Two uncommon top lots!
Chiswick went with a more traditional route by presenting a large Mamluk brass candlestick for £15,000-20,000 in their afternoon auction. According to the description, it was recently bought in France, but I couldn’t retrieve from where (I didn’t look too hard to be fair). The blazon engraved on the body indicates it was produced in the second half of the 15th century, but without further precision.[efn_note]According to M. Meinecke (1972), quoted by Julia Gonnella on Museum with no Frontiers, 47 amirs of the late Burji period used this particular blazon.[/efn_note] Chiswick is also offering the last part of the single-owner collection they have been selling for the past three years, the star lot being a 12th/13th Persian coper-inlaid brass ewer valued at £2,000-3,000. The auction of the five previous parts all did really well, including several white-gloves sales, and we can expect similar results this time around. What an amazing collection!
Safavid gold-damascened iron finial, Roseberys 30/10, lot 374
Additionally, we can only regret the lack of provenance on many lots from all four auction houses. At the risk of sounding like a broken record, at this point in time, undisclosed provenance in catalogue should not an acceptable practice. Auction houses obviously do their due diligence, but the opacity of the market has real consequences. We know artefacts and manuscripts are being looted or stolen from small, unpublished collections to be sold through port-francs, this is nothing new, and the only way to combat this is by being crystal-clear on provenance. Christie’s is selling Persian and Kashmiri manuscripts with no provenance line (lot 90and 91), and an Eastern Kufic Qur’an section from 11th/12th c. Persia with, for provenance, “By repute Private Collection, London, since circa 1990”. How was this even green-lit? In the same fashion, Sotheby’s is offering a beautiful 15th c. Central Asian silk robe, again we no provenance. Stay tuned for more discussion on provenance on the ART Informant podcast.
Building on Success
10th c. Qur’an, Sotheby’s 25/10, lot 11 (detail)
This season feels like a summary of the biggest success in London and Paris these past years. Sotheby’s second highest lot is a 10th century illuminated Qur’an of 247 leaves, including some replaced in the early 20th c., valued at £800,000-1,200,000. The manuscript is extraordinary, described in the catalogue as the earliest surviving Qur’an written in gold on paper, but unfortunately it comes with no provenance. Its presentation in the auction comes after the successful sale of a late 12th c. Abbasid Qur’an at Artcurial, Paris, in May this year, which achieved €406,720 (with premium). Christie’s also builds on that success with an Eastern Kufic section of 42ff from late 11th c. Persia, given at £80,000-120,000.
Unsurprisingly, we are seeing lots of historical swords in Sotheby’s and Christie’s catalogues. This comes after the record-breaking sale of Tipu Sultan’s bedchamber sword, sold earlier this year at Bonhams for £14,080,900, and which is today the 2nd most expensive piece of Islamic art ever sold (but you already knew that since you have read my Top22 blogs). Christie’s fully capitalises on that success with their second highest lot, a sword and scabbard from the personal armoury of Tipu Sultan, dated 1224 H./ 1796-97, valued £1,500,000-2,000,000 (same as Bonhams sword). The provenance is impressive: after Tipu Sultan’s demise, the blade went directly to Charles, 1st Marquess and 2nd Earl Cornwallis (d. 1805) and remained in the family until the cost of living crisis hit the UK and they couldn’t afford heating their castle. Joking aside, this sword is objectively more beautiful than the one sold at Bonhams, with a gold-inlaid hilt in the form of a tiger head, which makes the estimate almost conservative. Two other swords and a mustketoon from Tipu Sultan’s collection are also offered for more affordable ranges (lots 101-103), while Sotheby’s presents one gold-overlaid katar dagger with tiger stripe motifs for £60,000-80,000, attributed to Mysore with the mention of Tipu Sultan in the catalogue entry. The craze for Tipu Sultan lives.
Tipu Sultan’s sword, Christie’s 26/10, lot 100
Sotheby’s also offers a composite sword, the blade, most likely 16th century Safavid, bears an dedication to Süleyman the Magnificent (r.1520-66), while the marine-ivory hilt is most likely 18th century. Valued at £100,000-150,000, the historical name might attract buyers, in the same fashion as Awrangzeb’s sword “the army conquest” sold in the previous Islamic week for roughly 5 times its estimate.
For the previous Islamic week, I wrote that the high-end auction houses, particularly Sotheby’s, were expanding their range to objects generally sold on the Parisian art market, or by more affordable houses such as Roseberys and Chiswick. The operation was a success for Sotheby’s, prices achieving surprising heights. To be fair, estimates were high to begin with, with, for instance, a 19th c. Sub-Saharan Qur’an offered for £8,000-12,000, sold £31,750, or an Algerian wooden Arabic practice board valued £3,000-5,000, sold £20,320. Sotheby’s continues their expansion this season with manuscripts from East and West Africa, Dagestan, as well as wooden boards and printed hajj certificates that would normally be considered more as ethnographic curiosities than luxury art pieces. Some of the prices are particularly high. We can, for instance, question the estimate of An illuminated Qur’an from 17th century Algeria, valued £50,000-70,000. While the manuscript is of undoubtable quality and dated volumes from this time and region are rare, North African premodern production has never been a best seller on the London market. These manuscripts are usually favoured by the Parisian market which has more historical ties with the region. This strategy makes sense for Sotheby’s, but it might be detrimental to the Parisian market on the short and long term, we’ll have to wait and see.
The expansion of the field is once again demonstrated by Roseberys catalogue, which has arguably the most diverse selection (also the largest). It includes several lithographs and early Iranian prints, as well as sub-Saharan manuscripts, Chinese Qur’an sections, and interesting Christian volumes in Syriac and Arabic, including a partial Old Testament from 18th c. Syria or Egypt, previously sold in Paris by Rim Encheres for €800 and offered here for £1,000-1,500.
Biblical manuscript, 17th c., Roseberys 30/10, lot 135
India in the spotlight
Abu’l Hasan Asaf Khan, c. 1615, Christie’s 26/10, lot 5
The excitement this season comes from the auction of two major art collections: Edith & Stuart Cary Welch Collection sold by Sotheby’s, and Toby Falk’s collection presented by Christie’s, two important scholars of Indian painting in particular. The Welch collection is sold in two parts, live on the 25th October in the morning, and online from the 18th to the 27th. Sotheby’s made the interesting choice to present the collection has a whole under the Islamic and Indian department instead of splitting between departments, maybe following owner instructions, or to capitalise on the Welch name, known by collectors of Islamic and Indian art but not necessarily by others. The live catalogue includes Chinese, Japanese, and of course Indian artworks, while the online catalogue also includes Persian and European works, with generally lower estimates. Toby Falk’s collection is mainly composed of Indian paintings, with some Persian and Ottoman inclusions here and there. The quality of both collections reflect the impeccable taste of their owners, as well as their access to exclusive material via a network of merchants and collectors it would be interesting to investigate.
Amateurs of Indian arts on lower budgets will particularly appreciate Chiswick afternoon catalogue, which includes almost half on Indian objects, from painting to furniture, jewellery, musical instruments, and other. The prevalence of Indian paintings and objects in Islamic and Indian art auction is nothing new, but it is particularly visible this season and we can question how the market will be able to absorb this influx, especially given the two collector sales come on top of Christie’s and Sotheby’s selection in the main sale catalogues.
My Top 5
I did it for the previous Islamic week after someone asked me and really enjoyed picking 5 items among the treasures offered. This top 5 is just what I would buy if I had the funds regardless of market value or trends. In no particular order:
Roseberys, lot 500: A picchvai of Krishna fluting among rising lotus flowers, India, mid-20th century. This is the cutest wall-hanging I have ever seen, that is it.
Sotheby’s, E&SCW Collection, lot 77: Anonymous, “Whose Sleeves? (Tagasode)”, Momoyama-Edo Period, late 16th-early 17th century. Not Islamic but I adore these Japanese painted folding screens. I posted a different one on Instagram last year and I’m excited to see this one!
Christie’s, lot 50: A Hispano-moresque carved and bone-inlaid cabinet, Spain, 16th/17th c. My love for architectural cabinets will live forever.
Chiswick, lot 283: A Safavid tile mosaic with yellow peacock, 17th c. Collecting architectural ceramic goes against my principles, however I really love this production of Safavid architectural mosaic, they are so lively and colourful.
Christie’s, TF collection, lot 9: A peri in a garden, Mughal India, 16th c. The fineness of this depiction is absolutely striking.
A picchvai of Krishna fluting, India, mid-20th c.
Roseberys 30/10/23, lot 500 (detail)
With Summer fast approaching, I thought it would be the perfect time for some light reading to enjoy wherever you’re vacationing, and nothing get lighter than a list of top historical artefacts sold for outrageous amounts.
Three caveats before starting:
I decided to divide this top 20 in two, it was too long otherwise;
The list only goes back to 2010, mainly for access ease, but also because prices have exploded in the past few years and going back further is not necessarily relevant;
I purposefully left the auction “Maharajas & Mughal Magnificence” out of this list, otherwise most of it would have been composed of objects sold there, and some being debatable as their “Islamic” categorisation. For those who wouldn’t remember, this auction was held at Christie’s New York in June 2019 and was composed of jewelled pieces, gems and paintings from the Al-Thani collection. The most expensive lot, a Cartier devant-de-corsage brooch, was sold for $10,603,500, which would put it in second place of the list after conversion. I wrote about the results of this auction back in the days.
As mentioned, the reader will quickly notice the dates of the record auctions: most of them occurred between the end of 2018 and 2023. This truly shows how London market has drastically changed in the past few years, with prices increasing rapidly. As Dr Hiba Abid was telling in the episode of the ART Informant podcast, this is an issue for institutions that cannot rely on London’s market to expand their collection. However, this is a question for another day, as we are keeping the content light, so let’s jump into the first part Top20! In true internet fashion, we’ll start with the last.
All prices include premium. Click on the auction date and estimate to access the catalogue notice.
20 – £1,854,200: A Mamluk Carpet, probably Cairo, end of 15th c./ early 16th c.
This list starts with a very rare piece on the art market. Probably made in Egypt in a production context that remains to be precisely defined, these carpets were widely popular in 15th and 16th centuries European markets, especially around the Mediterranean sea where several were found in ports such as Venice and Genoa. In 2018, the blog “rugtracker” posted an in-depth article on Mamluk carpets; their popularity in Europe and their representation in Renaissance painting: you can read it here (it’s very good and full of images). These rugs are usually identifiable by their decoration, usually based on kaleidoscopic repetition of small motifs, central medallions, and their limited colour range dominated by brick-red. This particular carpet is a prime example of the production but according to the catalogue, it appears to be the only square carpet with a lobed medallion in its centre, usually this motif is applied to oblong pieces. Buyer’s enthusiasm for this rare piece can easily be understood, which is not necessarily the case for all the artefacts on this list!
Mamluk carpet, Sotheby’s 27.10.20, 448
19 – £1,855,000: A Gold Finial from the Throne of Tipu Sultan, c. 1800
If you don’t know who Tipu Sultan was, let me quickly introduce him, as you will see his name several times in that list (and you can be grateful it is only a top 20). Known as “the tiger of Mysore”, he was the ruler of the kingdom of Mysore from 1782 to 1799 (roughly the southern half of India at its largest). His reign is marked by conflicts with his neighbours, but mainly with the British East India Company, whom he fought all his life, sending emissaries to Ottoman Turkey, Afghanistan and France to gather forces against them. Ultimately, his efforts to limit the progression of the British in India were a failure, and he died in 1799 when British armies invaded the capital city. He was such a fierce opponent to the crown that his death was declared a national holiday in Britain, and the obsession for the man has continued ever since. This golden and gem-inlaid tiger head was part of the Al-Thani collection, which bought it at Bonhams in 2013 for £389,600. It was offered in New York in 2019 for $500,000-700,000 and remained unsold, until this year when it was valued roughly the same after conversion, this time achieving nearly 2 millions. This head was probably taken from the throne right after the death of the ruler and brought to England as a souvenir for Thomas Wallace (1763-1843), who was part of the Board of Control overseeing the activities of the East India Company. As we will see, a lot of Tipu’s memorabilia was taken from the palace immediately after his demise and passed to British collections, adding provenance to famous history.
Tipu Sultan throne finial, Christie’s 27.04.23, 84
18 – 2,062,500: A Safavid silk and metal-thread “Polonaise” Carpet, first half of the 17th century
Polonaise carpets are normally quite rare on the market so they usually do quite well, as we will see in this list. The production of these carpets have little to do with Poland and everything to do with the Safavid ruler Shah ‘Abbas I (r. 1587-1629). After moving the capital to Isfahan in 1598, he launched a big campaign to modernise Persia textile industry, and used the Armenian community freshly deported from Julfa to Isfahan to develop a solid trade network with Europe. Polonaise carpets produced at that time were often sent to Europe to either be sold, or to be gifted to royal families to illustrate the finesse of Persia’s craftsmanship. For this reason, a lot of Polonaise carpets have a very prestigious provenance, such as this one which was initially in the collection of Prince Pio Falcó in Rome. Among the particularities of this production is the decoration, often repeated nearly identically on two or more pieces. According to Christie’s catalogue, this one has an exact pair in the Palazzo del Principe in Genoa, built for Andrea Doria in 1521.
Polonaise carpet, Christie’s 1.4.21, 129
17 – 2,302,500: A Qajar Group Portrait, c. 1810-20
This massive painting, 2.565 x 4.42 meters, depicts twenty-four royal courtiers portrayed in three rows of eight, all standing facing left and wearing lavish robes and turbans or crowns, each figure identified. It was part of the Bonnet House Museum and Gardens in Fort Lauderdale, the summer residence of the artist and collector Frederic Clay Bartlett, and is truly unique occurrence on the recent market. It was probably made to decorate the walls of the Negarestan Palace, near Tehran, built in 1807 as a summer residence for Fath ‘Ali Shah, second ruler of the Qajar dynasty (r. 1797-1834). Christie’s bet big when offering this painting, and called upon Dr Layla S. Diba, great scholar of the period, to produce the catalogue essay. She did a phenomenal job that I will not paraphrase here, but I encourage all to have a look at it. Qajar painting is increasingly popular, however, and to my knowledge, it had never passed the million at auction. With a valuation at £1 million, this could have flopped dramatically. Instead, it made the list!
Qajar group portrait, Christie’s 1.4.21, 30
16 – £2,322,000: A Safavid silk and metal-thread “Polonaise” Carpet, first half of the 17th century
Christie’s seems to have a deal with owners of Polonaise carpets, as this second carpet is not the last one on the list. This one was in the collection of the Baron Adolphe Carl von Rothschild (1823-1900). Regarding the appellation “Polonaise”, it is linked to the passion of 17th century Baroque Europe for these carpets. Louis XV apparently owned 25 of them, but the Polish royal family developed a deeper fascination with Persia. As early as 1584, King Stephen Bathory (r. 1576-1586) bought 34 Persian textiles, and in 1601 a group of 8 Safavid silk and gold carpets was ordered by Sigismund Vasa III of Poland for his daughter’s wedding.1 The term itself was coined a lot later, during Paris Universal Exhibition in 1878 where examples of these carpets were exhibited in the Polish pavilions.
Polonaise carpet, Christie’s 31.03.22, 174
15 – £3,100,500: A silver-inlaid brass Basin, probably Herat, c.1200
This large basin of 50 cm diameter is particularly remarkable for its decoration. The twelve Zodiac signs sit in the bottom of the basin, each represented according to the iconographic codes developed in astrology literature, placed around the centre which features the planetary cycle, with Saturn in the middle, surmounted by the Sun, and clockwise – Mercury, Mars, the Moon, Jupiter and Venus.2 By itself, this piece is incredible, but when put back in the intellectual context of 12th or 13th century Persia, it becomes even more intricate and meaningful.
Astrological basin, Sotheby’s 31.03.21, 74
14 – £3,724,750: Qur’an dated 894 H./ 1489 made for the Sultan Qaytbay, Egypt
This is the only manuscript of this list, but also a head scratcher. While 14th century Mamluk Qur’ans are usually quite popular on the market and in academic historiography, the 15th century has suffered from a general lack of interest, and has fallen in an historiographical gap that is only starting to be filled. Among other things, the difference between the two centuries is linked to the change of style and, some would say, of quality, of the manuscripts produced. As noted in Christie’s catalogue, this Qur’an reflects a rapid execution, the calligraphy shows some irregularities and the illumination, nice from a distance, looks quite crude on some details (for instance the title band on picture 17 in the online catalogue: look at the layering of the reddish colour – it might be a repaint – and of the gold in the rosette underneath). The manuscript is a wonderful testimony of artistic patronage under Sultan Qaytbay, but was it worth more than £3 millions? I don’t believe so, but the market decides what the market decides.
Mamluk Qur’an, Christie’s 2.05.19, 11
13 – £3,724,750: A Safavid silk and metal-thread “Polonaise” Carpet, first half of the 17th century
Yes, another Polonaise carpet sold at Christie’s, in the same auction as the Qur’an aforementioned. This one is described as: “With the Saxon Elector and later King of Poland Augustus the Strong. Reputedly gifted in 1695 to Lothar Franz von Schonborn, Prince-Elector and Archbishop of Mainz, Archchancellor of the Holy Roman Empire.”
Polonaise carpet, Christie’s 2.05.19, 255
12 – £3,737, 250: A Nasrid period ear-dagger, Spain, 15th century
This dagger is the only Spanish entry in this list. Nasrid objects are quite rare on the market and usually do quite well without exploding records, except for this one. The Nasrids were the last Muslim dynasty in the Iberian Peninsula, ruling from 1230 to 1492 over a decreasing kingdom. This dagger is a great example of the artistic productions in the Peninsula, but also of the cultural hybridity that characterises the period. Arabic and Latin inscriptions or pseudo-inscriptions decorate the “ear” grips, and the letters R and TT are carved in relief, which might indicate it was owned by a Christian or a Castilian-speaker. The gold was restored, which gives this piece a remarkable finish, and the catalogue entry did a great job relating this dagger to others dated.
Nasrid ear dagger, Sotheby’s 06.10.10, 250
11 – £3,895,000: A Safavid silk and metal-thread “Polonaise” Carpet, first half of the 17th century
The last Polonaise carpet in this Top20, and the last entry of the first half of the list. Sold with the previous one, it came from the same private Swiss collection and was initially owned by the Archchancellor of the Holy Roman Empire.
Polonaise carpet, Christie’s 2.05.19, 254
Honourable Mentions
To finish, I wanted to mention a few pieces that didn’t make the list but that caught my attention. Click on the links to access the auction catalogue:
A life-size portrait of Mughal emperor Jahangir, signed Abu’l Hasan, 1026/ 1617: £1,420,000
Bonhams, 5 April 2011, lot 322: Described as the largest known Mughal portrait, this gouache painting of Jahangir sitting on a throne holding an orb is nothing less than an oddity. It measures 2.10 x 1.41m (including calligraphic borders), a size never seen before and never seen since. Lots of eyebrows were raised at the time, including mines.
A bronze Cannon from the Gun Carriage Manufactory at Seringapatam, Mysore, late 18th c.: £1,426,500
Bonhams, 21 April 2015, lot 156: Initially valued at £40,000 – 60,000, this £1,4M canon illustrates the obsession of the market with Tipu Sultan. A large part of Bonhams auction was dedicated to Tipu memorabilia but for reasons that elude me, this particular canon broke records.
A Qur’an Scroll, signed Mubarak ibn ‘Abdullah, Eastern Anatolia, 754 H./ 1353-54: £1,602,000
Christie’s, 27 October 2022, lot 28: This extraordinary manuscript deserves its price. Valued at £250,000 – 350,000, it was beautifully exhibited at Christie’s alongside the wall of a small room where it could shine in all its glory. Its sale came with a bit of noise that didn’t go further.
A monumental bronze oil-lamp, Andalusia, 11th c.: £1,608,000
Sotheby’s, 26 October 2022, lot 93: Last but not least, this telescopic Andalusian oil lamp valued £300,000-400,000. This one is complete, with all its components present in a very good state of preservation. It is truly a technical masterpiece brighten up with exquisite decoration.
Spring is here, and with it came auction catalogues! London houses have once again presented a great selection of amazing objects, including some things expected, and some really not. The first major surprise came from Bonhams. For the first time in… forever, probably, Bonhams is not participating in the Islamic week, their auction being pushed to the 23rd May. This is most likely due to the Parisian auction held by Bonhams Cornette de Saint Cyr (a.k.a. Bonhams Paris) on the 6th April, with a catalogue of 144 lots. Understandably, it would have been a struggle for the experts to carry two auctions less than a month apart. At the time I am finishing this article, the auction made €229,792.50 (including premium) with 75% of lots sold. Congratulation to the team for these results.
London Islamic week will start on Wednesday 26th April at Sotheby’s, which will present a small but action-packed catalogue of 175 items, including 40 carpets. The 27th, Christie’s will offer 240 lots, including 70 carpets. On Friday 28th, Chiswick and Rosebery’s will hold their auctions at the same time, Chiswick with two catalogues: part 5 of their single-owner sale in the morning with 90 lots, and 335 lots in the afternoon, and Rosebery’s with one catalogue of 528 lots including 56 archaeological artefacts and 33 contemporary art pieces.
Tortoiseshell fan, Hungary, Ottoman provinces, or Russia, 19th c. Chiswick lot 366, £2,000 – £3,000
Moving the Borders
Qur’an, Roseberys 316
This spring, the inclusion of several artefacts gives an impression that the field of Islamic and Indian art history is expending, shedding light on productions usually considered to be at the edges of the Islamic world. Sotheby’s presents two fragments of Qur’an in bihari script produced in pre-Mughal India: 35 illuminated folios which would have deserved a longer notice for their connexion with folios from other collections such as the Khalili (QUR602) and the Louvre (MAO937), valued at £26,000-35,000, and 5 folios from a different manuscript, decorated with very particular polychrome vegetal illuminations, offered for £15,000-20,000. Christie’s presents two illustrated folios from a Khusro nameh of ‘Attar, attributed to 15th century India (previously attributed to Southern Iran), “Imam ‘Ali fighting a Lion” for £7,000-10,000, “Hurmuz healing Jahan-Afruz” for £5,000-7,000. Rosebery’s shows three manuscript fragments: a juz, three folios, two folios, all for very small prices. Sultanate manuscripts never achieve incredible prices, but the presence of this many in the sales might be the beginning of something.
Collection of prayers, 19th c. Nigeria, Sotheby’s, lot 7, £4,000-6,000
Sub-Saharan manuscripts are also given the spotlight by Sotheby’s and Roseberys. These are usually reserved to mid-range auctions, and it is rare to see them included in top-end catalogues. Islamic art in Sub-Saharan Africa is a fairly new field that is expending slowly, so it is good to see it being given some well-deserved attention. Two beautiful Qur’anic manuscripts with their carry case from Nigeria or Chad are offered at Sotheby’s for £8,000-12,000 (lot 14 and 16), and an illuminated collection of prayers from 19th century Sudan is valued at £4,000-6,000. Additionally, an unusual wooden Qur’an board from Somalia is given at £3,000-6,000. Roseberys offers two Ethiopian Qur’an manuscripts with lavish decoration, as well as compilations of prayers likely copied in 19th century Horn of Africa.
Christie’s is offering a wonderful concertina manuscript from 19th century Burma (today Myanmar) with a rich and intriguing iconography for £1,000-1,500, which would have deserved more explanations, as well as a “Siirt” silver-inlaid bronze candlestick from 14th century Anatolia with Armenian inscriptions that illustrate perfectly the movements of artefacts in and out the borders of the Islamic world. Two Armenian artefacts are also offered at Chiswick, a Qajar brass tray and two crucifixes, and a complete Armenian gospel at Roseberys. 18th century Greek-Ottoman, Syriac, Coptic and Hebrew productions are also represented, all being parts of the large and undefinable Islamic world. Finally, Roseberys will present juz‘ of Chinese Qur’an manuscripts, as they have done for several seasons.
With the increasing difficulty to source new objects for a developing market, expanding the field appears a necessity. The progress of academic research also give light on previously unknown productions, highlighting their aesthetic and historical value. This is a win-win for both parties, and potentially a good investment for buyers, as these objects will most likely gain value in the next years.
A concertina of iconographic motifs, Burma, 19th c. Christie’s, lot 103, £1,000-1,500
Pushing the Chronology
Geographical boundaries are not the only one being pushed this season, it also feels like the chronology is expending. Persian paintings illustrate this well, with a qualitative selection of a large range of historical productions, starting with the 14th century until the 2000s. Two folios of the same Shah Nameh produced in Persia in 741/ 1341 (under the Inju dynasty) are presented, “Faramarz lifts Surkha, son of Afrasiya, from the saddle” offered by Christie’s for £8,000-12,0000, “The fight between Nowzar and Afrasiyab” offered by Roseberys for £6,000-8,000.
For the 15th century, Chiswick is offering an illustrated Shah Nameh page from Western Persia (£300-500), as well as Roseberys, presenting a restored page from an unidentified manuscript (£1,000-1,500), Christie’s an extraordinary full-page painting from Timurid Herat (150,000-200,000). 15th century Persian painting for every budget! The 16th century is represented by a painting from a manuscript Akhlaq-i Muhsini of Husayn Va’iz al-Kashifi (Sotheby’s, £10,000-15,000) and of course, a new page from the Shah nameh of Shah Tahmasp, a folio illustrated by a nocturne combat scene, offered at Sotheby’s for £4,000,000 – 6,000,000, the top lot of the season. In its centre, Bizhan slaying the Turanian leader Nastihan, surrounded by the Iranian army chasing the rest of the raid. As always, the level of details on the painting is astonishing and there is no doubt people will queue to see the page. The previous page sold at Sotheby’s last season achieved £8,061,700, the year before one sold at Christie’s for £4,842,000, I am therefore very curious to see if prices will continue to increase. Usually, fight scenes sell for less than other types of illustrations, but this is the most sumptuous Persian manuscript ever created, so the rule might not apply. If you want to learn more about this extraordinary manuscript, you can listen to the episode of the ART Informant podcast with Dr Firuza Melville.
Signed Mu’in Musavvir 1087/1676 (detail), Christie’s 52, £40-60,000
Two pages signed by Mu’in Musavvir are offered by Christie’s. He’s not the most famous painting of the second half of the 17th century, but his work has been well studied, in particular by Dr Massumeh Farhad, so the pages should sell well (here and there). A beautiful oil painting signed by Muhammad Baqir, one of the stars of the 18th century, who notoriously collaborated to the decoration of the St Petersburg album, and dated 1173/ 1659-60 is also at Christie’s for £150,000-250,000. Zand productions are not the most studied, but this painting seems like a safe bet. Lots of Qajar gol o bolbol and beautiful ladies are offered everywhere (as well as couples in compromising positions and a puzzling “ring of 10 intertwine youths” at Chiswick!), and interestingly, late 19th and early 20th century paintings, such as the portrait of Zahir al-Daula, son-in-law of Nadir al-Din Shah Qajar, dated 1301/ 1884 (Christie’s, £120,000-180,000), and another portrait from the same time, this time of an unknown dignitary (Chiswick, £2,000-3,000). Several Iranian artists are represented at Roseberys, including Maryam Shirinlou (b. 1966) who has been doing solo exhibitions since the 1990s.
The inclusion of Persian painting from different eras is not new on the market, but the offering is particularly consistent and will most hopefully show what will be the trends going forward, especially for later periods.
Shah nameh of Shah Tahmasp, fol. 328r. Sotheby’s lot 41, £4,000,000 – 6,000,000
Trendy Blades
The Army’s Conquest, Sotheby’s lot 94
Arms are clearly having a moment in the sun this spring. They already shone bright last year in Paris, with category white-glove sales at Artcurial and Millon, so we can expect high success in London as well. Christie’s top lot is a 17th century Mughal gem-set dagger with impeccable provenance: it was first in the hands of Lord Robert Clive of Plassey (or his son), and last in the al-Thani collection (Qatar reigning family), which is partly exhibited in the Hotel de la Marine in Paris1; an impressive pedigree! Value at £300,000-500,000, it is remarkable for its atypical proportions and the uniquely large stones that ornate the hilt. To be noted that other Indian lots come from the al-Thani collections (67 to 76), all the highest quality. I am particularly excited to see the 18th century silver and gilded durbar set (£250,000-350,000)
Speaking of pedigree, Sotheby’s present two historical swords: one gilt-mounted sword with ruby eyes and scabbard from Tipu Sultan’s armoury (£200,000-300,000), and the beautifully simple personal sword of Mughal Emperor Aurangzeb (r.1658-1707): ‘The Army’s Conquest’ (£150,000-200,000), Chiswick also includes two Indian blades among the top lots, a 19th c. “Sosun Pattah” ceremonial sword (£4,000-6,000) and an 18th-19th c. jade-hilted “khanjar” with garnet beads (£4,000-6,000). Several other swords and blades are presented by the four houses, so it’ll be interesting to see if the success encountered in Paris in winter 2022 will be duplicated here. Maybe swords are the new manuscripts?
My Top 5
To finish, someone asked me on Instagram what are my 5 favourite items this season, and I thought it would be a fun way to end this article. Here they are, with little explanation and in no particular order:
The page of Shah Tahmasp’s Shah Nameh. Obviously (Sotheby’s, lot 41)
Five pages from a Qur’an produced in Sultanate India. I posted about it on Instagram, they really caught my eye. Only one other page of this manuscript has surfaced so far, presented at Rim Encheres earlier this year [efn_note]Thank you to Rim Mezghani for the reminder[/efn_note]. The illumination design and colours are simply exquisite (Sotheby’s, lot 4)
“Solomon with the Queen of Sheba”, Timurid Herat, mid-15th c. I adore Timurid painted productions (illustrations and illuminations), and this scene, with its profusion of figures, elements and gold, simply makes me happy. Look in particular at the Queen’s expression looking at Solomon, we all deserve someone who looks at us like that (Christie’s, lot 25)
An illustrated Tarikh-i Dilgusha-yi Shamshir Khani, Lahore or Kashmir, 19th century. This text, which is basically an abridged version of Firdosi Shah Nama, was written by Tavakkul Beg in 1063H/ 1653 and encountered a certain popularity in India.2 Kashmiri 19th century paintings are a hit or miss, to say the least, but the 24 illustrations in this manuscript are really nice. (Chiswick, lot 434)
“A lady writer with hookah”, Pahari school, Kanrga or Guler, North India, mid-19th c. Powerful feelings emanate from this scene, art resonates. (Rosebery’s, lot 94).
Enamelled gold lid, Persia, 19th c. Chiswick, lot 42, £500-700
Isabelle Imbert 