Folio from a Shahnama (Book of kings) by Firdawsi (d.1020); recto: text: Battle of Shida and Kay Khusraw; verso: Shida, Son of Afrasiyab, slain by Kay Khusraw
Detached folio from a dispersed copy of the Shahnama (Book of kings) by Firdawsi, text: Persian in black and red naskh script; recto: text, Battle of Shida and Kay Khusraw, six columns, thirty lines; verso: illustration and text, Shida slain by Kay Khusraw, six columns, twenty-one lines; one of a group of twelve folios. Patron: Qiwam al-Dawla wa'l-Din
Border: The text and the painting are set in red and black rulings on cream-colored paper.
Provenance:
Charles Vignier (1863-1934), Paris, France. [1]
To 1942
Henri Vever (1854-1942), Paris and Noyers, France. [2]
From 1942 to 1986
Family member, Paris and Boulogne, France, by inheritance from Henri Vever, Paris and Noyers, France. [3]
From 1986
Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, purchased from a family member, Paris and Boulogne, France. [4]
Notes:
[1] See Susan Nemazee, "Appendix 7: Chart of Recent Provenance" in An Annotated and Illustrated Checklist of the Vever Collection, Glenn D. Lowry et al (Washington, DC: Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, Smithsonian Institution; Seattle and London: University of Washington Press, 1988), p. 402.
[2] See note 1.
[3] See the Agreement for the Purchase and Sale of the Henri Vever Collection of January 9, 1986, Collections Management Office.
