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)
I cannot believe 2024 is already here. It seems like this year has flown by, but I’m saying that every year. On a personal note, 2023 has been a strong year, full of positive moments, but that has also demanded a lot of resilience and hard work. I already know 2024 will also required a lot of focus and dedication to be able to manage it all, but I’m excited about it.
But enough about me! What happened on the Islamic & Indian art market this year? In short: a lot, and because the year went so fast, I thought now would be a perfect time to review the key moments of the British and French auction houses that have brought us so much excitement. Let’s rewind the year, but not necessarily in chronological order as this has proven to be a bit monotonous to write (and I’d assume to read). After that, I’ll give you some of my predictions for 2024!
All the prices given below include buyer premium.
Carved panel, Anatolia (?), 13th c. Sotheby’s 26.4, 87
Key moments of 2023 in London and Paris
The market year started in February with two back-to-back auctions by Ader which included many Indian paintings that sold quite well. In hindsight, this gave the tone for the sales to come. In February, an Ottoman Qur’an juz from 15th century Anatolia valued at €8,000-12,000 sold for €96,000. In March, the highest result was with two Company School paintings of the Taj Mahal and the Buland Darwaza valued €6,000-8,000 and sold for €30,720. Both auctions achieved a total of €1,105,422, to which were added €299,654 from a third sale in July of the collection of famous French collector Philippe Magloire, bringing the total for the year to €1,405,076, a 325% progression since the previous year (during which only one auction was held), and put Ader on the third place of the French podium.
Glass cup, Rim Encheres, 10.3, 10
Rim Encheres also held an auction in March, selling only 36% of the lots for a total of €248,573. Given the fact that the house is only two years old, expectations differ, but we can already highlight that the objects sold most often within their estimate, which somehow gives a feeling of fairness in the midst of the over-the-top estimates we particularly saw on London’s market. The most successful artefact was a gold sandwich glass cup from 11th c. Iran or Syria, valued €40,000-50,000 and sold for €52,000.
Bonhams also held an auction in Paris in the spring, which brought £229,793. Several lots were described as coming from a royal collection without more details.
Shahnama (detail), Sothebys 26.4, 41
Sotheby’s dominated both Islamic weeks in 2023, and with them the whole market, holding three auctions for a total around £29,643,612, a 59% progression compared to 2022. April saw another folio from Shah Tahmasp Shahnama depicting “Bihzan slaying Nastihan” come on the market, this time a fight scene which was expected to do less than previous folios with less violent paintings, especially the extraordinary depiction of “Rustam recovers Rakhsh from Afrasiyab’s herd” sold in October 2022 for £8,061,700. “Bihzan slaying Nastihan” sold for £4,875,800.
The big surprise was Christie’s overall result, sitting at £17,826,655, a 41% decrease compared to 2022. One must admit that 2022 was a particularly rich year for the house, with the sale of several multimillion lots, including a page from Shah Tahmasp’s Shahnama for £4,8 millions in March and a Mughal pashmina carpet for £,5,2 millions in October 2022. In 2023, only two objects passed the million; a gold finial from Tipu Sultan’s throne for £1,8 millions in April, and a rare signed and dated Meccan manuscript of the Futuh al-Haramaynfor £.1,2 millions, sold against a very low estimate of £20,000-30,000.
Roseberys surpassed £1 million in April with an auction that included archaeology and a few contemporary pieces. Roseberys’ strategy is quantity over price, with auctions composed of more than 500 lots each and inviting estimates for old and new collectors. This approach has clearly worked for the house this year, with exciting biding battles, especially a dated and signed Mamluk astronomical treatise produced in 697/ 1298 in Egypt or Syria, valued £600-800 for its poor preservation state and sold £182,000.
Similarly to Roseberys, Chiswick favoured quantity over price without compromising on quality neither, with catalogues of 300 to 400 lots each time. The other asset of the house for the past few years has been the progressive sale of a single-owner collection, mainly composed of Persian pieces, which overall sold more than 95% of the lots over 6 sales. The top lot in April was a 17th c. Safavid ceramic tile showing the bust of a man holding a blue and white ceramic vase, which sold for £25,000.
Tipu Sultan sword, Bonhams 23.5, 175
The main surprise of the year was brought by Bonhams, which achieved a total result of £17,826,655 in 2023, a 976% progression from 2022 (this percentage is not a typo). I wrote in November 2022 that Bonhams was not doing too well financially, recording their lowest result in 10 years, but 2023 saw them rise again. In May, records were broken by the sale for £14,080,900 of the bedchamber sword of Tipu Sultan, climbing to the second place of most expensive Islamic art object ever sold at auction.
Also in May, Artcurial held their first auction of the year, which was crowned by the presentation of an Abbasid Qur’an from the end of the 12th century, valued at only €20,000-30,000 and sold without surprise for €406,720.
Qur’an, 12th c., Artcurial 24.5, lot 101
Like in 2022, Millon arrived in first place of the Parisian market with a overall result of €2,528,631 for two main and two online sales. June auction highlight was also a 12th century Qur’an, this time in Kufic script, sold within its estimate for €150,000.
Qur’an (detail), 12th c., Millon 14.6, 177
Sotheby’s progression this year is partly due to the Shahnama page sold in April, and partly to the immense success of the sale of Edith and Stuart Carry Welch’s collection in October which made £10,853,253 in total, £ 8,102,600 for Islamic and Indian art only. The second part of the Welch sale was online, the 56 Islamic and Indian lots bringing an additional £127,763. The ‘normal’ October auction included two unsold top lots, a halftone result compared to April but that still made £6,718,554, nearly a million more than Christie’s, which brought £5,766,218. Christie’s also had a single-owner auction next to the ‘normal’ sale, offering a large selection of Indian and Persian paintings from the collection of Toby Falk, renowned Islamic art history scholar who passed away in 1997.
Sidenote: Scholarly and conversation jobs don’t pay that well, at least these days, so I would love to understand how Stuart Cary Welch and Toby Falk managed to constitute collections as extensive and packed with masterpieces. Let’s not forget S.C. Welch owned a page of Shah Tahmasp’s Shahnama, the most expensive manuscript in the world, which sold in 2011 for £7,433,250. In the 70s and 80s, the Islamic art market was not as big as it is now, but even then, both collectors must have spent fortunes buying some of these pieces. There is clearly a secret here I do not possess. If someone knows, please share. End of sidenote.
Coucal, Christie’s
The biggest success from the Welch collection was the painting of “an Assembly of Village Elders with William Fraser’s munshi and diwan”, beautifully depicted around 1816, valued £150,000-250,000 and sold for £952,500. It had been acquired by Welch in 1980 for an amount I couldn’t retrieve. Toby Falk’s highlight was the painting of “a lesser coucal on a frangipani branch” made in 1777 for Elijah Impey, valued £80,000-120,000, sold for £504,000.
The Islamic week was followed in November by Bonhams eventful sale of the so-called Harvard world map, a Mecca-centred World Map made in Safavid Persia in the 17th century, which got its nickname due to the fact it was on long term loan to the Harvard Art Museums until 2014. The lot was first withdraw from the sale, then reintegrated, and finally sold for £1,863,400, against an estimate of £1,500,000-2,000,000.
The “Harvard world map”, Bonhams 14.11, 192p
Artcurial November auction was not nearly as profitable as April’s, reaching only €474,797 thanks to the presentation of a 14th century Mamluk domed casket sold for €183,680. Overall Artcurial arrives second on the Parisian market with a total result of €1,478,955, a 32% progression since 2022 (excluding archaeology that is managed by a different expert). This result is due to a clever choice to offer smaller, carefully curated catalogues centred on few unpublished pieces with stellar provenance and great catalogue work. To be noted that Pingannaud-David expertise is also making moves outside of Artcurial, namely with Gros & Delettrez, a house mainly known for their orientalist painting sales. For the very last auction of the year, they presented a small catalogue of 34 lots centred on an extraordinary “Damascus room”, unpublished and in great condition. At the time of writing, the results were yet to be published, but we can already note that the main part of the room sold for €340,000 hammer.
Rim Encheres held a small but successful auction in December, selling 92% of the lots for a total of €128,583, including an Ottoman kilij sabre with pommel and sheath entirely covered in red coral and turquoise, sold for €22,100.
Finally, Millon made around €1,026,244.83 with their second main auction, which consisted in parts in a large private collection constituted in the 19th century and preserved in an extraordinary apartment in Bordeaux. You can see some of the amazing setting in a presentation video by the expert Anne-Sophie Joncoux-Pilorget. The auction itself surprised everybody when a 14th c. Mamluk silver-inlaid brass candlestick valued €20,000-40,000 sold for €180,000.
This is the tricky part of this article, and my predictions might end up completely off tracks. The Islamic and Indian art market is difficult to predict due to its very diverse nature. Aside from archaeology, no other market covers geographic and chronological ranges as large, not to mention the whole panel of artistic media, from engraved animal bones to entire architectures. What comes on the market also depends on what experts are able to source and who is willing to sell, so all this to say that there are a lot of unknowns from one season to another. That being said, looking at 2023, we can go into 2024 with a few expectations.
Three pages of Shah Tahmasp’s Shahnama were sold since 2022, and though none got offered in the autumn Islamic week, it wouldn’t be surprising to see more appear on the market this year given the continuous success of previous pages. That being said, collectors might decide to hold off selling their piece for a few years to create an event as big as the presentation of “Rustam kicking the boulder” by Christie’s in April 2022.
Tipu Sultan’s sword, Bonhams 14.11
Given the results achieved in 2023 by all kind of Tipu Sultan’s memorabilia, we would probably be right to expect more to come on the market in 2024. The sale of Tipu Sultan’s bedchamber sword by Bonhams aside, Christie’s also made the top 22 in April by selling a gold finial from Tipu’s Throne for £1,855,000, and Sotheby’s sold a sword with ruby eyes for £1,197,500. Christie’s sold another sword for £100,800 in October, while two other remained unsold. Bonhams sold a gilt-copper hilted steel sword from Tipu’s armoury in November for £89,300, as well as various artefacts such as a engraving and newspapers. Autumn auctions has shown that buyers will not jump blindly on every object marked Tipu Sultan, even when the provenance is solid, and my assumption is that the price of the bedchamber sword will remain extraordinary for the years to come, thanks to a perfect storm of long and prestigious provenance and clever marketing.
Hajj map (detail), Sotheby’s 26.4, 2
It seems that a small but highly lucrative niche is getting carved around rare religious and history manuscripts. In April, Sotheby’s achieved high results on two unexpected items, a Hajj map made in 1329/ 1911, valued £10,000-15,000 and sold £40,640, and a copy of the Kitab akhbar Makkah dated 77/ 1374 (history of Mecca), valued £200,000-300,000, sold £762,000. In June, the trend continued with the Abbasid Qur’an sold by Artcurial for €406,720, as well a Mamluk copy of the 7th volume of the Kitab al-tamhid of Abd al-Barr, dated 695/ 1296, sold in the same auction for €59,040 against an estimate of €8,000-12,000. The volume was remarkable for many reasons, including its known calligrapher, its preservation and the historical notes it contains. In October, Christie’s sold a large 18th c. Kashmiri prayer book for an astonishing £108,360 against a valuation of £15,000-25,000, and the aforementioned copy of the Futuh al-Haramayn made in Mecca in 1003/ 1595 for £1,250,000. I’ll be interesting to see where this goes.
Copper ewer, Chiswick 31.10, 9
Finally, medieval metalworks might be making a come-back, maybe. I am never confident when it comes to medieval metalworks and ceramics, buyer’s appeal for both media being quite unpredictable, but the recent results might be the beginning of something. In April, Sotheby’s sold a 12th c. Khurasan feline-form incense burner for £215,900, more than twice its high estimate (£70,000-90,000), Christie’s sold another one the next day for £126,000 (est. £50,000-70,000), as well as an Anatolian Siirt silver-inlaid bronze candlestick for £107,100 (est. £40,000-60,000). Chiswick best results in October were two 12th or 13th c. ewers, a silver-inlaid bronze one for £11,250 and a copper-inlaid brass one for £9,375. In Paris, Artcurial sold the aforementioned Mamluk domed round casket made in the first half of the 14th c. for more than twice its low estimate, and Millon sold their Mamluk candlestick for 9 times its low estimate. Objectively, I was not expecting this kind of results, and I’m intrigued to see what the new year will bring for mediaeval metalworks. See you in April for more!
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.
Isabelle Imbert 