A detached illustrated album folio : Chand Bibi hawking, 
Murshidabad, provincial Mughal, circa...

A detached illustrated album folio : Chand Bibi hawking, 
Murshidabad, provincial Mughal, circa 1750, 

Opaque pigments heightened with gold on paper, mounted on a richely bedecked white horse, with two mounted courtiers, a mounted attendant and another two on foot, in a grassy valley, a lake or a river behind outcrops in the background, laid on card within floral borders against light brown ruled in orange, gold and red, wider gold speckled blue margins, the reverse with a blue flower, perhaps a narcissus, within a lobed cartouche picked in orange against a yellow field, within a border composed of a swaying leaved tendril, laid on card within a garland of flowers and serrated leaves, the whole ruled in orange, green, white, gold, red and blue, wide gold speckled margins ruled in blue and gold, foliated no.43 in blue ink to upper left corner, various framing instructions in modern blue ink along upper edge within the wide margins' rules, mounted,   

Folio 43.5 x 31.5cm. 

Provenance: Private collection Karl Mann (B.1930), acquired circa 1972.

Compare to Christies NYC, 19 June 2019, lot 258

Karl B. Mann began collecting temple hangings during his first trip to India in 1969 to acquire objects as part of his work as an interior designer and supplier to other dealers in New York, NY. By 1973, Mann had returned to India nine times to expand his collection. Indian works he donated are on display at the Smithsonian National Museum of Asian Art and the Arthur M Sackler Gallery.

See also Robert Skelton, “Rajasthani Temple Hangings of the Krishna Cult from the Collection of Karl Mann, New York” (exhibition catalogue), New York: American Federation of Arts, 1973.