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[DE-SMB-ISL] I. 4595

Shelfmark
  • I. 4595
Title
  • [Album of Painting and Calligraphy]
Institution

Content

Title

↳ Established form
  • [Album of Painting and Calligraphy]
Region
Content
  • The album was probably compiled in Lucknow for Antoine-Louis-Henri Polier de Bottens (1741-1795)  before 15 April 1782, when Polier was promoted from major to colonel. The first and last double-page spreads each show two juxtaposed miniatures. The other double pages each combine a calligraphic piece on the left with a miniature on the right. Three miniatures are signed by the Mughal painter and album compiler Mihr Chand (f. 2a, 22a und 35a). The calligraphic pieces are written in many different scripts and variations of form; 19 of them bear signatures of calligraphers of the 17th and 18th centuries.
Completeness
Language
Script
Editions/Literature
  • Eighteenth-Century Indian Muraqqaʿs: Audiences – Artists – Patrons and Collectors (Islamic Manuscripts and Books, vol. 23) / Friederike Weis (ed.). Leiden/Boston: Brill, forthcoming.
    [table 7.2; f. 1b = fig. 9.6; f. 18a = fig. 13.10; f. 19b = fig. 10.17; f. 21a = fig. 14.3; f. 21b = fig. 5.8; f. 26b = fig. 9.15; f. 35a = fig. 9.16]
    *
    Weis, Friederike:
    Cruel Conquerors and a Solomonic Saint: European Collectors’ Interests in Indian Muraqqaʿs.
    In: Manuscript Albums and Their Cultural Contexts: Collectors, Objects, and Practices (Studies in Manuscripts Cultures, vol. 34) / Janine Droese and Janina Karolewski (eds.). Berlin: De Gruyter, 2023, pp. 125–165.
    https://doi.org/10.1515/9783111321462-004
    [f. 5a = fig. 7]
    *
  • Sultans of Deccan India 1500–1700: Opulence and Fantasy / Navina Najat Haidar und Marika Sardar (eds.). New York: The Metropolitan Museum, 2015.
    [f. 36a = cat.no. 43]
    *
    India’s Fabled City: The Art of Courtly Lucknow / Stephen Markel with Tushara Bindu Gude (eds.). München et al.: DelMonico/Prestel, 2010.
    [f. 2a = cat.no. 148]
    *
    Gladiß, Almut von:
    Albumblätter: Miniaturen aus den Sammlungen Indo-Islamischer Herrscherhöfe. München: Edition Minerva, 2010.
    [f. 5b = fig. 16; f. 25a = fig. 20, f. 34a = fig. 13]
    *
    Roy, Malini:
    Some Unexpected Sources for Paintings by the Artist Mihr Chand (fl. c. 1759-86), son of Ganga Ram.
    In: South Asian Studies 26/1 (2010), pp. 21–30.
    [f. 2a = fig. 5]
    *
    Taswir: Islamische Bildwelten und Moderne / Almut Sh. Bruckstein Çoruh und Hendrik Budde (eds.). Berlin: Nicolai 2009.
    [f. 11a = cat.no. XIV/25]
    *
  • Haase, Claus-Peter:
    Kalligraphische Meisterwerke.
    In: Islamische Kunst in Berliner Sammlungen: 100 Jahre Museum für Islamische Kunst in Berlin / Désirée Heiden und Jens Kröger (eds.). Berlin: Parthas, 2004, pp. 116-122.
    [f. 21b = fig. 88]
    *
  • Zebrowski, Marc:
    Deccani Painting. London: Sotheby's, 1983
    [f. 36a = fig. 85 und pl. 13]
    *
  • Indische Albumblätter: Miniaturen und Kalligraphien aus der Zeit der Moghul-Kaiser / Regina Hickmann (ed.). Leipzig/Weimar: Gustav Kiepenheuer Verlag, 1979.
    [f. 5b = pl. 6; f. 19b = pl. 42; f. 21a = pl. 47; f. 23a = pl. 13; f. 25a = pl. 25; f. 36a = pl. 17]
    *
    Kühnel, Ernst:
    Islamische Schriftkunst. Graz: Akademische Druck- u. Verlagsanstalt, 1972 (1. Aufl. 1942).
    [f. 13b = fig. 75]

Description of the object

Record type
Format
Number of volumes
  • 1
Boxing
  • 40.1 x 28.3 cm
Binding
  • red leather binding with gilded embossing at the edges and in the centre

Writing material

↳ Material
↳ State of preservation
  • disbound, loose folios, each with one page of calligraphy and one page of painting
Number of folios
  • 36 (originally 40), European pagination
Dimensions
  • 39.0-40.0 x 28.0 cm

Script

↳ Style
↳ Ink
Illumination
  • margins with floral decoration
Miniatures
  • 37 miniatures, 33 calligraphic compositions, one rosette (Shamsa) with dedication

History of the object

Entstehung

Autograph

1780-1782 in Lucknow, Awadh (today's Uttar Pradesh) (GND: 4026722-2, GND: 4277882-7, GND: 4111406-1)

  • Miniature painter
↳ Name
↳ Note on the Person
  • signatures onf. 2a, 22a, 35a
    عمل مهر چند پسر کنکا رام
    ʿamal-i Mihr Čand pisar-i Gangā Rām
    work of Mihr Čand, son of Gangā Rām
  • Calligrapher
↳ Name
↳ Note on the Person
  • signature on f. 7b:
    فقیرحافظ نورالله تحریر نمود
    faqīr Ḥāfiẓ Nūr Allāh taḥrīr bar nimūd 1196
    'The poor Ḥāfiẓ Nūr Allāh wrote [it] 1196/1781-82'.
  • Calligrapher
↳ Name
↳ Note on the Person
  • signature on f. 8b:
    کتبه فقیر الحقیر میر محمد حسین عطا جان مرصع قلم
    katabahū faqīr al-ḥaqīr Mīr Muḥammad Ḥusain ʿAṭā Ḫān Muraṣṣaʿ Raqam
    'The poor despicable Mīr Muḥammad Ḥusain ʿAṭā Ḫān Muraṣṣaʿ Qalam wrote it'.
  • Calligrapher
↳ Name
↳ Note on the Person
  • signature on f. 10b:
    مشقه خلیلالله
    mashaqahū Khalīl Allāh
    'Khalīl Allāh calligraphically wrote it'.
  • Calligrapher
↳ Name
↳ Note on the Person
  • signature on f. 11b
    کتبه سید علی جواهر رقم ۱۰۷۶غفر ذنوبه
    katabahū Sayyid ʿAlī Jawāhir Raqam / ghafara dhunūbahu 1076
    'May [God] forgive his sins 1076/1665-66'.
    signature on f. 33b:
    مشقه الفقیر المذنب جواهر رقم
    mashaqahū al-faqīr al-mudhnib Javāhir Raqam
    'The poor and sinful Javāhir Raqam wrote it calligraphically'.
  • Calligrapher
↳ Name
↳ Note on the Person
  • signature on f. 13b:
    خط نواب مرید خان مرحوم
    ḫaṭṭ-i Navvāb Murīd Ḫān marḥūm
    'writing of the deceased Navvāb Murīd Khān'
    signature on f. 25b:
    کتبه العبد مرید خان طباطبا
    katabahū al-ʿabd Murīd Ḫān Ṭabāṭabā
    'written by the servant Murīd Khān Ṭabāṭabā'
  • Calligrapher
↳ Name
↳ Note on the Person
  • signature on f. 15b:
    کتبه المذنب الفقیر عبد الرحیم و سترالله عیوبه
    katabahū al-mudhnib al-faqīr ʿAbd al-Raḥīm wa-satara Allāh ʿuyūbahu
    'The sinful and poor ʿAbd al-Raḥīm wrote it. May God forgive [cover] his sins'.
    signature on f. 21b:
    فقیرعبد الرحیم عنبرین قلم
    faqīr ʿAbd al-Raḥīm ʿAnbarīn Qalam
Colophon
  • dedicatory rosette (shamsa) on f. 36b:
    این مرقع چهل ورق تصویرات معه
    قطع های نسختعلیق وشکسته وغیره بخط اوستادان
    بابت سرکارافتخار الملک امتیاز الدوله میجر پولیر
    بهادر ارسلان جنک دام اقبله
    īn muraqqaʿ-i chihil varaq taṣvīrāt maʿahu / qiṭʿah-hā-i naskh-taʿlīq wa shikastah wa-ghayruhu ba-khaṭṭ-i ūstādān / bābat-i sarkār Iftiḫār al-mulk Imtiyāz al-Dawlah Mayjir Pūlīr / Bahādur Arsalān Jang dāma iqbāluhu

    ‘This album of 40 leaves of pictures together with pieces in Naskh-Taʿlīq script and Shikastah and other scripts by the masters [was compiled] for the lord, pride of the empire, ornament of the government, Major Polier, hero, lion of battle [Mugahl honorific titles] / may his prosperity last forever’.

Provenance

Provenance
  • 1882
  • London
  • acquired by the Berlin Kupferstichkabinett from the 12th Duke of Hamilton, handed over to the Königliche Museum für Völkerkunde (Royal Museum of Ethnology) in 1891
  • 1844
  • Hamilton Palace, South Lanarkshire, Scotland
  • passed into possession of the Hamilton family through marriage of Alexander Hamilton Douglas (10th Duke of Hamilton) with Susan Euphemia Beckford
  • 1799-1800
  • Lausanne
  • presumably acquired from the guardian of Polier's sons
  • 1781-1782
  • Lucknow, Awadh (today's Uttar Pradesh), India
  • produced for

Access and usage

Institution
Shelfmark
  • I. 4595
Additional numbers
  • old classmark: IC 24344
Editor
  • Weis
Status of edit
  • First input complete
Static URL
https://mymssportal.dl.uni-leipzig.de/receive/DEMUS019014Book_manuscript_00000014
MyCoRe ID
DEMUS019014Book_manuscript_00000014 (XML view)
Export
Metadata license
CC0 1.0
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