Youths in a Scriptorium - Mughal India, circa 1590

Gouache heightened with gold on paper, eight youths in brightly coloured robes sit in a scriptorium talking amongst themselves and practicing the art of calligraphy, they are attended by a manservant in white robes and looked upon by an elderly gentleman standing in the foreground of the composition, within cobalt, gold-speckled borders, mounted, framed and glazed. 5 5/8 x 3½in. (14.1 x 8.5cm.) - Estimate: £6,000-8,000

Notes: Another contemporaneous representation of an active manuscript atelier is in the collection of Prince Sadruddin Aga Khan (Anthony Welch and Stuart Cary Welch, Arts of the Islamic Book. The Collection of Prince Sadruddin Aga Khan, London, 1982, no. 58, pp. 173-175). That example came from a manuscript of the Akhlaq-i Nasiri (The Nasirean Ethics), attributed to Lahore, circa 1590-95. The miniature of the atelier was one of a series that dealt with arts, crafts and professions and provides valuable information about the urban professional society in Akbar's India (Welch and Welch, op. cit., p. 175). This miniature may from another copy of the manuscript.

Christie's. Art of the Islamic and Indian Worlds. 8 April 2008. www.christies.com