SAFAVID IRAN, PROBABLY 17TH CENTURY Standing man Gouache on paper depicting a bent man leaning on a long red stick. Bears an apocryphal inscription dated "Mu'in Musavvir 1036 H. (1626-27)". Mounted on a catenated margin embellished with four calligraphic cartouches in nasta'liq with a quatrain by Hafiz, and a polylobed cartouche reading "banda-yi shah duraq" (the king's slave, Duraq) on a scroll background (wear, folds, stains). Dim. page: 26 x 16.5 cm; drawing: 12.5 x 6.3 cm The margin appears to come from a now-dispersed poetry manuscript commissioned in Herat by Shah Duraq Ustajlu, some of which are signed Muhammad Amin or Hasan 'Ali al-Katib and dated circa 1575. Several of these pages are in museums.

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