gouache and gold on ivory, the portrait oval, surrounded by a gold floral design, also oval, this surmounted by a parasol, the corners with swags in gold and further floral decoration, the upper swags containing inscriptions in black nasta'liq script, mounted in a European frame covered in purple velvet and bearing a gilt metal crown at top, leather back, easel stand
the painting 120 x 77 mm.; the frame 190 x 131 mm.

Footnotes

Provenance
Christie's, Important Islamic, Indian and Southeast Asian Manuscripts, Miniatures and Works of Art, 11th October 1988, lot 99.
Private UK collection.

The inscriptions read (in the top left), 'Blessings, Blessings, Blessings, Blessings' (Mubarak); (in the top right), 'Blessings on the Fifty-Year Reign'. The portrait is apparently after a detail of a photograph of 1882 by Alexander Bassano (an example is in the National Portrait Gallery). Victoria had been proclaimed Empress of India ten years before in Delhi by the Viceroy.

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- Islamic and Indian Art
- Modern & Contemporary South Asian Art

Ф	Item contains or is made of ivory
	This lot contains or is made of ivory and cannot be imported into the USA or any country within the EU.
Y	CITES
	Subject to CITES regulations when exporting items outside of the UK, see clause 13.

A portrait of Queen Victoria on ivory, painted to commemorate the fiftieth year of her reign Delhi, circa 1887

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Matthew Thomas