Matthew Thomas
Senior Specialist
Lot 124Ф,Y
A carved ivory Penbox with the name of Khuda-Bakhsh Delhi, 19th Century
6 October 2015, 14:00 BST
London, New Bond Street£5,000 - £7,000
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A carved ivory Penbox with the name of Khuda-Bakhsh
Delhi, 19th Century
Delhi, 19th Century
of rectangular form on four feet, the lid opening to reveal two partitions, the larger with removable tray, the wood interior clad entirely in ivory panels profusely carved with cartouches containing floral sprays and foliate motifs, the central panel to the lid with inscription-filled cartouche, the borders with friezes of carved foliate motifs, the base with painted bone panels and inlaid bone cartouches
29 x 8 x 7.8 cm.
29 x 8 x 7.8 cm.
Footnotes
Inscriptions: a Persian couplet in nasta'liq, ey to bashi dar jahan sar-daftar-e ahl-e qalam marja'-e arbab-e danish mafkhar-e ahl-e qalam, 'O you, who is the frontispiece of literary men in the world, The refuge of masters of knowledge and the boast of literary men!'; in the small panel below, ya khoda-bakhsh, 'O Khuda-bakhsh!'.
The Khuda-bakhsh referred to in the inscription may be Khuda-bakhsh Bahadur Khan (1842-1908), the founder of the Khuda-bakhsh Oriental Public Library in Patna.