Arts of the Islamic World & India

An Ottoman metal-thread embroidered leather wallet, Constantinople, dated 1789

Estimate

5,000 - 7,000 GBP

Lot Details

Description

of rectangular form with folding cover, embroidered with cross-hatched cartouches and acanthus leaves, the reverse a floral vase, the front inscribed 'Constantinople 1789'

11.8 by 18.7cm.

A wallet of closely comparable embroidered decoration is in the Ömer M. Koç Collection, see Bilgi 2022, pp.138-9, no.35. The interior of the present wallet bears a note in German which records that the wallet was gifted to the recipient by a certain Marta on the day of the Feast of St Boniface in 1820 to mark the recipient's ordination.

Abu Mansur Mawhub ibn Ahmad ibn Muhammad ibn al-Khadr al-Jawaliqi (d.1144 AD), Kitab takmilat islah ma taghlat fihi al-'amma, on Arabic grammar, Near East, circa 1300 AD

Estimate: 40,000 - 60,000 GBP

Ibn Battuta (d.1377), Tuhfat an-Nuzzar fi ghara'ib al-amsar wa 'aja'ib asfar, a volume from The Travels, North Africa, 17th century

Estimate: 30,000 - 50,000 GBP

An extremely rare illustrated manuscript of the Ka'banameh (A history of the Ka'ba) by Abdulrahman Gubari (d.1566), signed by Ahmad [...] al-Khatib, Kaposvár, Hungary, dated Dhu'l-Hijjah 1080 AH/April-May 1670 AD

Estimate: 120,000 - 180,000 GBP

An illuminated leaf from a Gulistan of Sa’di, the borders attributed to Sultan Muhammad, Persia, Tabriz, Safavid, circa 1525-40

Estimate: 20,000 - 30,000 GBP

Nasih ibn Zafar al-Jurbadqani, Tarjamah Yamini 'Utbi (on the history of Ghaznavid rulers Sebuktigin and Mahmud of Ghazni), signed by Muhammad ibn Kamray ibn Muhammad ibn Abu'l-Mukhtar, Persia, dated 11 Rajab 711 AH/30 November 1311 AD

Estimate: 20,000 - 30,000 GBP

Abu Muhammad Makki ibn Abi Talib al-Qaysi al-Qayrawani al-Andalusi al-Qurtubi, al-kashf 'an wujuh al-qira'at al-sab' wa 'ilaliha wa hijajiha ('Unveiling the Aspects of the Seven Recitations'), Near East, circa 1100 AD

Estimate: 30,000 - 50,000 GBP

The Pandnameh (Book of Advice) of Luqman, copied by Mahmud ibn Ishaq, Central Asia, Bukhara, Safavid, dated 941 AH/1534-35 AD

Estimate: 15,000 - 25,000 GBP

A large illuminated Qur'an, ⁠Central Asia, 19th century

Estimate: 15,000 - 20,000 GBP

An illustrated and illuminated leaf from a manuscript of Firdausi's Shahnameh (The Freer Shahnameh): Iskandar testing the Indian physician, Persia or Baghdad, Ilkhanid, circa 1300-40

Estimate: 15,000 - 25,000 GBP

A large illuminated Qur'an, Persia, Shiraz, Safavid, 16th century

Estimate: 120,000 - 180,000 GBP