Featured Persian Painting - Book of Kings

Hi everyone, I bought a miniature Persian painting which is marked on the back, (probably by the original owner) "Persian - Shiraz School ca 1550 from Shah-Namah". I used AI to ask about this and it says it's likely a folio from a manuscript of the Shahnameh (Book of Kings), possibly "The Night of Kai Khusrau and Afrasiyab. The text is Nastaliq script." I sent inquiries to a few auction houses. Christies replied that it doesn't meet their threshold and I'm waiting to hear from Sotheby's. What do you think - could it be a page from the Shahnameh? The image is 5.5 x 8.5" and framed under glass and has a silk mat. The frame and mat looks older, possibly 1930 - 1950s? I read that Houghton sold his original Shahnameh book and many pages were sold individually. The rest are in museums around the world. Any suggestions on where to send inquiries on this? Thanks.

 

The Shahnameh is a classic of Persian literature, the equivalent of Homer's epics in the European tradition, or the Ramayana in the Hindu tradition. There have been a great many manuscript versions produced since the poem was written in the 10th century. The nastaliq form of calligraphy also has a long history of use, up to the present day. So your manuscript page is not necessarily rare, and its value would probably depend on when it was actually made.

You can search sites such as liveauctioneers for auction results for "Persian manuscript illumination" to get an idea of what similar pages have sold for.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shahnameh

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nastaliq

https://www.liveauctioneers.com/sea...t illumination&sort=-relevance&status=archive

 

Nice ...cept for they guy getting his head cut off ........

 

Life's like that, Komo...an' much of it ends thus.

 

Fred Flintstone in drag???? Oh yeah, Disneyfied Red Queen.

I"ve seen a fair number of these book pages, and they're rarely worth real money. I never say never, but wouldn't get my hopes up.

 

A Persian version of the Bayeaux Tapestry!

 

Its only his ear. Dont be so soft.

 

Yes indeed. The older antique ones can be worth plenty but there are so many modern repros. Many of them are beautiful though, regardless of valuation.

 

I just bought an auction lot of seven or eight somewhat similar paintings for $200. All professionally framed. I’ve only looked at the two biggest ones so far. They are more modern, but like you said they are beautiful. Hopefully there ends up being a special one in the bunch. That gives you an idea of auction value though for what are likely mediocre and more modern examples. By modern I mean likely 19th century and early 20th. Though the pages themselves are likely older in some cases. This was a top end regional auction house that gets good prices for nearly every lot relative to other good regional houses I know of.

 

You'll have to post photos of them.

 

That is not usual practice in Iran, but it is something you see on Indian Mughal style miniatures.

 

I took my painting out of the frame and see that it is a larger page which was cut from a book. Also, there are columns of Islamic writing on the reverse. I did an image search of the writing and it thinks it says The Killing of Siyavash from the Shahnameh. I have seen other similar two-sided pages framed sandwiched between glass to show both sides.

 

Upon closer inspection (out of the frame) it appears the poor man has been beheaded. His head is upside down, totally removed from his neck.

 

This is the back of the page. Perhaps it tells the story of Siyavash.