Bookcovers from a volume of the Gulshan Album (Rose Garden album)

Object Details

• Description

  Pair of bookcovers, decorated with colors and gold on a dark background, and coated with lacquer. The pictoral image on one, referred to as A in this report, is a hunting scene that includes an elephant, bridge and minaret. The second one, to be called B, has a pictoral image with various animals including a dragon. The central image of each is bounded by two borders: the inner border has gold painted flowers on a dark red background; the outer border has calligraphy, birds and floral ornamentation executed in colors and gold on a black background.

  The doublures have leather cut filigree with exposed substrates in blue, dark red, orange and green. The central panel also contains leather with relief embossing in two tones of gold, decorated with faunal activity. There is an inset with calligraphy at the top of A's central panel.

  All edges of the interior side are bordered with dark red leather, approximately 1 cm. wide. On what would appear to be the binding edge of both covers, there are thin, black leather strips, approximately 5 cm. wide. Their locations suggest that A is the front cover and B is the back.

• Provenance

  To 1739

  Mughal Imperial Library, Delhi, India. [1]

  From 1739 to late 1800s

  Persian Imperial Library, Tehran, Iran. [2]

  From ? to 1999

  Parnian Kummer, Geneva, Switzerland. [3]

  From 1999

  Freer Gallery of Art, purchased from Parnian Kummer, Geneva, Switzerland. [4]

  Notes:

  [1] These album covers with folios were taken from India to Iran when Delhi was looted by Nadir Shah in 1739.

  They remained in Iranian hands until the late nineteenth century, when they began to be dispersed. See Curatorial Remark 2 in the object record.

  [2] See note 1.

  [3] Believed to have been the property of Ms. Kummer’s father. From 2000 to 2003 questions were raised regarding provenance and ownership of these pieces. Research is ongoing.

  [4] See Acquisition Consideration Form, copy in object file, Collections Management Office.

• Collection

  Freer Gallery of Art Collection

• Exhibition History

  Worlds within Worlds: Imperial Paintings from India and Iran (July 28 to September 16, 2012)

  Arts of the Indian Subcontinent and the Himalayas (October 16, 2004 to January 3, 2016)

• Previous custodian or owner

  Mughal Library

  Imperial Library (Tehran)

  Mme. Parnian Kummer

• Origin

  India

• Credit Line

  Purchase — Charles Lang Freer Endowment

• Type

  Book

• Restrictions and Rights

  Usage Conditions Apply

  There are restrictions for re-using this media. For more information, visit the Smithsonian's Terms of Use page.

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Keep Exploring

• Related Resources

  collections.si.edu

• Date

  1590s, 1630s

• Name

  Kummer, Parnian, Imperial Library (Tehran), Mughal Library

• Place

  India

• Topic

  Art, Hunting, Holy man, Mughal dynasty (1526 - 1858), Flowers, Ostrich, Lettering, Dragon, Elephants, South Asian and Himalayan Art, Animals, Lacquer, Simurgh

• Culture

  Himalayan peoples, South Asians

• Object Type

  Books