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An illustrated erotic manuscript in Urdu, Bahar-e 'ishq (Spring of Love), copied by the scribe Kishwar, with 73 illustrations North India, 19th Century image 1
An illustrated erotic manuscript in Urdu, Bahar-e 'ishq (Spring of Love), copied by the scribe Kishwar, with 73 illustrations North India, 19th Century image 2
An illustrated erotic manuscript in Urdu, Bahar-e 'ishq (Spring of Love), copied by the scribe Kishwar, with 73 illustrations North India, 19th Century image 3
An illustrated erotic manuscript in Urdu, Bahar-e 'ishq (Spring of Love), copied by the scribe Kishwar, with 73 illustrations North India, 19th Century image 4
An illustrated erotic manuscript in Urdu, Bahar-e 'ishq (Spring of Love), copied by the scribe Kishwar, with 73 illustrations North India, 19th Century image 5
Lot 6

An illustrated erotic manuscript in Urdu, Bahar-e 'ishq (Spring of Love), copied by the scribe Kishwar, with 73 illustrations
North India, 19th Century

30 March 2021, 11:00 BST
London, New Bond Street

Sold for £2,550 inc. premium

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An illustrated erotic manuscript in Urdu, Bahar-e 'ishq (Spring of Love), copied by the scribe Kishwar, with 73 illustrations
North India, 19th Century

Urdu manuscript on paper, 78 leaves, 14 lines to the page written in nasta'liq script in black ink, 73 illustrations in ink and gouache depicting sexual positions and courtesans in interiors, decorated opening page followed by a decorated headpiece, cloth boards
202 x 122 mm.

Footnotes

The text is apparently written in Urdu. There is a composition recorded of the same name, written in Urdu, by a certain Mirza Shawq Lakhnavi, but in verse, whereas our manuscript is in prose.

The colophon gives the scribe's name as Kishwar, and that he came from a village somewhere in the region of Saharanpur in Uttar Pradesh.

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