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Persian Portraits, Etc.

• Object type

  • painting
  • album

• Museum number

  1974,0617,0.2.4

• Title (series)

  • Persian Portraits, Etc.

• Description

  Shah ʿAbbás I with attendants; single-page painting mounted on an album folio. Shah, wearing an orange tricorn hat, red jacket, green pants and knee-high boots, kneels beside an attendant, also kneeling, and hands him a small dish. Shah carries a dagger, a sheathed sword, a sheathed bow and a quiver on his back. A second attendant stands slightly removed, pouring wine from a jug. Tufts of grass in the foreground; void ground behind figures; band of black and blue sky along top of image. Framed by black speckled beige border ornamented with gold vine scroll; flowering only on left; page cut before mounted into album. Inscribed to right of figures and caption below image. Album contains 67 Deccani paintings, mostly depictions of named individuals, along with some Hindu gods and goddesses.
  Ink, opaque watercolour and gold on paper. Album bound in blue-green leather and stamped with Sloane's gilded armorial on front and back cover.

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• Culture/period

  • Islamic

• Date

  • 17thC(late)

• Production place

  • Made in: Deccan
  • (Asia,India,Deccan)

• Materials

  • paper
  • leather (album)

• Technique

  • painted
  • gilded

• Dimensions

  • Height: 36 centimetres (album)
  • Width: 26 centimetres (album)
  • Thickness: 2.7 centimetres (album)
  • Height: 34.5 centimetres (folio)
  • Width: 22.7 centimetres (folio)
  • Height: 29 centimetres (image with border)
  • Width: 17.5 centimetres (image with border)
  • Height: 25.5 centimetres (image)
  • Width: 14 centimetres (image)

• Inscriptions

  • • Inscription Type

      inscription

    • Inscription Position

      below lower border

    • Inscription Language

      English

    • Inscription Content

      A Persian with his ARMS.

  • • Inscription Type

      inscription

    • Inscription Position

      right of figure

    • Inscription Language

      Persian

  • • Inscription Type

      mark

    • Inscription Position

      top right, above image

    • Inscription Content

      1974 6-17 02 (4)

    • Inscription Comment

      BM registration number

  • • Inscription Type

      owner's mark

    • Inscription Position

      lower border, left

    • Inscription Comment

      red BM crown stamp

• Curator's comments

  See 1974,0617,0.2 .1-.67 for all folios included in this album. See 1974, 0617, 0.2.1 for information about inscriptions on album and front matter.

• Bibliography

  • Canby 2009 20, p.62

• Location

  Not on display

• Exhibition history

  Exhibited:

  2009 19 Feb-14 Jun, BM, Round Reading Room, 'Shah 'Abbas: The Remaking of Iran'

• Subjects

  • attendant

• Associated names

  • Representation of: Shah 'Abbas I

• Acquisition name

  • Bequeathed by: Sir Hans Sloane
  • Transferred from: British Library

• Acquisition date

  1974

• Acquisition notes

  Transferred from the Department of Oriental Manuscripts and Printed Books (OMPB).

• Department

  Middle East

• Registration number

  1974,0617,0.2.4

• Additional IDs

  • SL.5254 (stamped on the spine of the album)