19th C Mughal Indian Painting Miniature Portrait Wood

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19th C Mughal Indian Painting Miniature Portrait Wood

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Sold Date: 11/18/2007
Channel: Online Auction
Source: eBay
Category: Ethnic, Folk & Native American Art

Wonderful old carved wood roundel with 12 fine gauche miniature portrait paintings on thin cream colored material of some sort. Portraits are of members of the great Mughal dynasty. Each portrait is mounted in a bezel of silver and in the center of the roundel is a silver plaque hand engraved with names of the most prominent persons among the portraits including Akbar, Shah Jahan ,creator of the Taj Mahal, Moti Mahal, his love, and Mum Tas Mahal. The round wood is one piece and completely hand carved with vines and birds. The entire piece is in excellent condition without cracks or chips in the wood. The paintings are all undamaged but two have a small amount of damage from a bit of water , both are in the photos and the damage is not noticiable. The quality of the painting is remarkably high. The brushwork on the faces especially is very fine. I have owned this object for almost 20 years and it has been a pleasure. I have never seen another like it in shows or auction catalogs. 13" dia with 12 1 3/8" x 1 1/8" oval portraits. Each painting is covered with a bevelled glass and two do not have a bevelled edge on the glass. A paper on the back states " Akbar the great is the white haired gentlman directly below the inscription. He was the most powerful of all the great Moguls of India. He built the beautiful city of Fatipur Sikri near Agra. Fatipur never lived because of lack of water. His wife in directly above the inscription. To the right of the inscription is Shah Jahan, the romantic esthetic husband of the beautiful Moti Mahal, at left of the inscription. The outer circle of miniatures represent four less famous Moguls and their wives. All the miniatures are on **** and executed with extremely fine brushes frequently consisting of a single hair. They were executed by one of the great painters of Agra, now deceased.