An opening double-page frontispiece from a royal copy of the Shahnameh attributed to Mansur, Mughal, Jahangir period, circa 1610

This opening superbly illuminated double-page frontispiece has the distinctive borders of a well-known manuscript of the Shahnameh (or Garshaspnameh, see below) almost certainly made for Emperor Jahangir around 1610. Several other folios, mostly with illustrations, are known and published, but the opening double-page has never before come to light and is a significant addition to the group.

There are seven complete text folios from the Garshaspnama in the Chester Beatty Library, Dublin (11A.34, see Leach 1995, pp.327-9), and other text folios have appeared at auction as follows: Sotheby's, London, 7 April 1975, lot 14, this item sold again at Christie's, London, 26 April 2005, lot 239; Sotheby's, London, 12 April 1976, lot 4, 23 April 1979, lot 36. A handful of illustrated pages survive, including one in the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (Pal 1993, no.68), one in the Cleveland Museum of Art (45.171, Leach 1986, no.21), two sold by P and D Colnaghi in 1976 (Persian and Mughal Art, no.88), and one sold at Sotheby's, London, 7 December 1971, lot 188A, and again 28 April 2004, lot 57. A border from the same manuscript, devoid of either a miniature or text panel, was sold in these rooms 24 October 2007, lot 35.

The information concerning these folios in previous publications and catalogues has not always consistent. The style of the borders is close to those of a royal copy of the Farhang-i Jahangiri made for Jahangir in 1608 and on occasions the two had been confused. However, there are distinctive differences both in the quality of the border painting (this manuscript tends to be slightly finer) and in its subject matter (the Farhang-i Jahangiri has human figures in the borders, whereas this Shahnameh has only animals, birds and vegetation), as well, of course, as in the fact that one text is a dictionary and the other is a Shahnameh. But even within the context of the Shahnameh pages there have been differing opinions. The majority of the pages listed above have been described as coming from a copy of the Shahnameh, but in the catalogue of a sale in these rooms on 28 April 2004, lot 57, an illustrated page was described as being from a copy of the Garshaspnameh of Hakim Abu Ali bin Ahmad Tusi, which although similar to the Shahnameh of Firdausi is a separate text (it had previously been sold in these rooms 7 December 1971, lot 188A, where it was catalogued as coming from a Shahnameh). However, the present pages bear a text which is undoubtedly from the Shahnameh, being the opening of the preface to the Baysunghuri edition. Thus it is possible either that there were two separate illustrated manuscripts on a similar theme made for Jahangir around 1610–one of the Shahnameh and one of the Garshaspnameh, or that one single manuscript was made that included both texts. The dimensions of the published pages are all almost identical.

It is interesting to note the extremely close similarity between the illumination of the inner borders on the present double page and an illuminated headpiece singed by the Mughal artist Mansur in a manuscript of the Baharistan dated 1595 in the Bodleian Library, Oxford (Ms. Elliot 254, see Beach 2011, fig.1). The design, quality and execution is so close that it would not be inappropriate to attribute the present illumination to the same artist, who, although best-known as a painter of natural history subjects, was also a celebrated illuminator.