ID 727234
Lot 41 | RUSTAM KICKING AWAY THE BOULDER PUSHED BY BAHMAN
Estimate value
£ 2 500 000 – 4 000 000
ATTRIBUTED TO AQA MIRAK, ASSISTED BY QASIM BIN 'ALI, SAFAVID TABRIZ, CIRCA 1530
Folio 451 from the Shah Tahmasp Shahnama, gouache heightened with silver and gold on paper, panels of Persian nasta'liq verses in four columns above and below between gold and black rules, in gold and coloured ruled margin, gold-sprinkled leaf, the reverse with 22ll. of nasta'liq arranged in four columns, an illuminated heading panel below, in similar margins
Painting 8 1⁄4 x 8 3⁄8in. (20.8 x 21.2cm.); folio 18 1⁄2 x 12 1⁄4in. (47.2 x 31.1cm.)
Provenance
Commissioned by Shah Isma'il, circa 1522
Completed under his son Shah Tahmasp, circa 1525–1540; by whom presented in 1568 to
Sultan Selim II; thence by descent
Baron Edmund de Rothschild, Paris (d.1934), purchased in 1903, thence by descent to
Baron Maurice de Rothschild, Paris, (d.1957), sold from his estate in 1959 to
Arthur A. Houghton Jr., USA by whom consigned to Agnews, London, 1977, from where sold to
The British Rail Pension Fund, sold Sotheby’s London, 23 April 1996, lot 14, to Private Collection, USA
Literature
M. B. Dickson and Stuart Cary Welch, The Houghton Shahnameh, Harvard University Press, Cambridge, 1981
Sheila Canby, The Shahnama of Shah Tahmasp: The Persian Book of Kings, New York, 2011
Special notice
These lots have been imported from outside of the UK for sale and placed under the Temporary Admission regime. Import VAT is payable at 5% on the hammer price. VAT at 20% will be added to the buyer’s premium but will not be shown separately on our invoice.
| Art style: | Safavid (1506-1722) |
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| Place of origin: | Iran, Asia |
| Art style: | Safavid (1506-1722) |
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| Place of origin: | Iran, Asia |
| Address of auction |
CHRISTIE'S 8 King Street, St. James's SW1Y 6QT London United Kingdom | |
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| Phone | +44 (0)20 7839 9060 | |
| Buyer Premium | see on Website | |
| Conditions of purchase | Conditions of purchase |



