Oliver White
Head of Department
Lot 16•
An illuminated Qur'an on Dutch watermarked paper Malaysia or Indonesia, late 18th/ early 19th Century
8 April 2014, 10:30 BST
London, New Bond StreetSold for £5,625 inc. premium
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An illuminated Qur'an on Dutch watermarked paper
Malaysia or Indonesia, late 18th/ early 19th Century
Malaysia or Indonesia, late 18th/ early 19th Century
Arabic manuscript on European watermarked paper (probably Dutch, bearing a coat of arms and the letters P V H), 316 leaves, 15 lines to the page written in elegant naskhi script in black ink with diacritics and vowel points in black and red, gold discs between verses, inner margins ruled in black and red, exquisite coloured devices in wide outer margins, occasional catchwords, sura headings in thuluth script in white within cartouches with vegetal finials, finely illuminated frontispiece in colours and gold, some edges frayed, some worming and waterstaining mostly restricted to outer margins, two folios inserted at beginning with discs between and devices in outer margins, remaining uncoloured, modern green leather binding, worn, doublures and endleaves of marbled paper
280 x 190 mm.
280 x 190 mm.
Footnotes
Compare the illumination with that found in Qur'ans and prayer manuscripts from Malaysia, Indonesia and Thailand: see A. Teh Gallop, 'Islamic Manuscript Art of Southeast Asia', in J. Bennett (ed.), Crescent Moon: Islamic Art and Civilisation in Southeast Asia, Adelaide 2005, pp. 159-183.