Persian calligraphy (recto), and lion killing a deer, and two men with a camel (verso), folio from an Ottoman album

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Persian calligraphy (recto), and lion killing a deer, and two men with a camel (verso), folio from an Ottoman album. Across Iran, India and Turkey, from the sixteenth century at least, albums (or muraqqa`) had become an important way of storing and presenting one's diverse collection of artworks on paper: valuable specimens of calligraphy, single-page paintings or drawings, and even European prints, all re-mounted in a careful sequence. This album was compiled in early seventeenth-century Ottoman Istanbul, probably for a private citizen. Album-page, ink, colours and gold on paper, mounted on gold-flecked card, two paintings (verso) and four calligraphy samples in Persian (recto and verso), one of twelve detached folios from an Ottoman album, assembled Istanbul, Turkey, c. 1620. Recto: Persian verses by the poet Jami` in nasta`liq script, mounted on marbled (ebru) paper, set on larger gold-flecked album-page. Verso: tinted drawing of a lion killing a deer, signed Aqa Mir, painting of two men, one spinning yarn, by a chained camel, Persian verses in nasta`liq script, mounted on marbled (ebru) paper, set on gold-flecked album-page.