Live Auction 1203The India Sale
Portrait of a nawab of Fatehpur with a huqqa
Lot 110 REGISTERED ANTIQUITY - NON-EXPORTABLE

Portrait of a nawab of Fatehpur with a huqqa

BY KASAM, INDIA, BIKANER, DATED VS 1804/1747 AD

Closed15 December 2015

Price Realised

INR 350,000

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Portrait of a nawab of Fatehpur with a huqqa
By Kasam, India, Bikaner, dated VS 1804/1747 AD
The noble in profile seats against a pink bolster holding a huqqa pipe, clad in a closely fitting white top, a turquoise turban with elegant sarpech, his face framed by a halo against a silver background, set within a jharoka window under a marble ribbed dome rising to a lotus finial, full red margin with inner white rules, the reverse with devanagri inscription, ownership stamps and librarian's signature
Opaque pigments and gold on paper
9¼ x 5 in. (23.6 x 12.8 cm.), painting
13 5/8 x 7 7/8 in. (34.5 x 20cm.), folio

Royal Collection of Bikaner (no. 9), before 9 June 1964

Specialist note

Fatehpur is a town in Shekawati approximately mid-way on the main route between the cities of Jaipur and Bikaner. In 1747 when this was painted, Bikaner was in the depths of near consistent battles between the various rival Rajput powers, made more intense by the civil war that was taking place in Marwar. The Shekawati region was at the same time breaking away from the direct control of Jaipur, so this noble, positioned just the other side of the border from Bikaner, would have been of particular political interest to Gai Singh, the then ruler of Bikaner (r.1745-1787) (Hermann Goetz, The Art and Architecture of Bikaner State, Oxford, 1950, p.49).