A LOOSE ILLUMINATED ALBUM PAGE WITH A SEATED MUGHAL COURTIER SMOKING A HUQQA AND NASTA'LIQ POETRY
Provincial Mughal School, possibly Delhi or Awadh, Northern India, ca. 1750 - 1780

Opaque pigments and black ink heightened with gold on wove paper, the verso featuring a traditional courtly palatial interior scene with a Mughal nobleman, possibly a prince, clad in a fur-lined gold-embroidered floral overcoat reminiscent of Persian hunting coats, seated on a white floor spread, smoking from a globular gilt green glass huqqa (water pipe), behind him a standing attendant with a fly-whisk, set within black, green, red and blue rules, and concentric decorative borders in gold and dark blue illuminated with elegant floral meanderings, the recto with a plain rectangular calligraphic panel in-filled with a black ink Persian nasta'liq love poem (ghazal), set within black and blue rules, and dark blue and illuminated cream borders, at the bottom of the page a cropped circular library stamp dated 1300 AH (1882 - 83 AD), mounted in a double glazed frame, 49cm x 36.5cm including the frame.