Christie’s has announced its auction of the arts of the Islamic and Indian worlds, including oriental rugs and carpets, which will be held live at its headquarters in King Street London, on April 27. The auction offers stunning examples of manuscripts, paintings, ceramics, metalwork, and carpets dating from the ninth to nineteenth centuries.
Top of the exhibited pieces is an impressive collection of jewel-encrusted Mughal treasures that highlight the greatness of the Indian court, in addition to two distinctive masterpieces, one of which is a plate with vibrant drawings that embodies the luxury of the royal court and represents the pinnacle of Timurid artistic production, and a Qajar oil painting by the famous artist Muhammad Baqer. The auction also includes an impressive collection of paintings Persian and Indian manuscripts are from private collections, as well as some exceptional examples of Iznik pottery.
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The auction sheds light on the importance of early oriental carpet works, which were depicted in western paintings of the Renaissance and European art masters. It presents a group of outstanding examples of rugs in the design of “Lotto”, “Garlandaio” and “Holbein in Small Patterns” from the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Among the most important of these pieces is a very rare Anatolian rug called “Phoenix in Octagon” from a private collection, and it is one of the few examples still extant from the Western world.
The exhibition also includes a unique collection of Persian manuscripts and paintings belonging to a number of personal private collections. Among the most prominent exhibits is a wonderful Timurid painting entitled “Baysongur in the Attire of Solomon and the Queen of Sheba”, Timur Herat, from the first half of the fifteenth century. The painting embodies the royal grandeur of a royal court scene, and is one of the earliest drawings that later became a common theme in Persian painting.
The auction will also offer a distinguished Zand painting, arguably one of the best works of artist Muhammad Baqir, who was one of the most famous artists active in the period between 1740 and 1800. The auction also offers two album pages, one of which is in Arabic calligraphy, and signed by Sultan Ali Mashhadi, Timur of Herat, late fifteenth or early sixteenth century, and contains poems of Persian poetry written on paper.
The auction also offers some stunning examples of Ottoman ceramics, as well as a number of important examples of Iznik pottery, and a small collection of ceramics from Kütahya, the site of a pottery kiln that became popular after the decline of Iznik pottery. The highlight of this section is an Iznik earthenware jug with a lavender floor, Ottoman Turkey, made around 1570.
Sarah Plumbly, Head of Islamic and Indian Art at Christie’s, said: “The April auction will feature a unique and wide range of artworks from across the Islamic and Indian worlds, in particular a number of private collections covering a variety of fields, from manuscripts to And Persian and Indian paintings and down to Ottoman ceramics. We are particularly excited to present a very important collection of Mughal jewellery, as well as a number of Persian paintings dating back to the period between the fifteenth and nineteenth centuries.”
The upcoming auction will feature 96 antique and intricately patterned oriental rugs and rugs, which were woven in the cities, villages or Bedouin encampments along the Silk Road. Among the most important of these pieces is a very rare Anatolian rug called “Phoenix in Octagon” that was woven in the late 15th / early 16th century, in central or eastern Anatolia.