Back to Search

Coffee house scene (recto) and Persian calligraphy (verso), folio from an Ottoman album

Title	Coffee house scene (recto) and Persian calligraphy (verso), folio from an Ottoman album
Publication Date:	c. 1620
Type	Document
Language	Persian
Digital	Yes
Manuscript	Yes
Physical Dimensions	415 mm x 266 mm (height x width)
Library:	Chester Beatty
Record ID	T 439.9
Library Location	Turkish collection
Date	c. 1620
Notes	Coffee house scene (recto) and Persian calligraphy (verso), folio from an Ottoman album. Across Iran, India and Turkey, from the sixteenth century at least, albums (or muraqqa`) had become an important way of storing and presenting one's diverse collection of artworks on paper: valuable specimens of calligraphy, single-page paintings or drawings, and even European prints, all re-mounted in a careful sequence. This album was compiled in early seventeenth-century Ottoman Istanbul, probably for a private citizen. Album-page, ink, colours and gold on paper, mounted on gold-flecked card, painting with calligraphy (recto) and calligraphy with tinted drawing (verso), one of twelve detached folios from an Ottoman album, assembled Istanbul, Turkey, c. 1620. Recto: coffee house scene with men drinking, reading and playing board games, Persian calligraphy in nasta`liq script, mounted on marbled (ebru) paper. Verso: panel of Persian poetry in nasta`liq script signed Shah Mahmud Nishapuri, tinted drawing of two angels with hunting birds, lightly inscribed Bihzad, mounted on gold-flecked paper.
Materyal	Paper (material), Pigment (material), Ink (material), Gold
Nesne Adı	Folio / Bi-Folio (Codex)
Yazı Tipi	Nasta'liq script

View in source Chester Beatty Chester Beatty - Ottoman library catalog search

Chester Beatty

Coffee house scene (recto) and Persian calligraphy (verso), folio from an Ottoman album

Publication Date c. 1620

Type Document

Language Persian

Digital Yes

Manuscript Yes

Physical Dimensions 415 mm x 266 mm (height x width)

Library Chester Beatty

Record ID T 439.9

Library Location Turkish collection

Date c. 1620

Notes Coffee house scene (recto) and Persian calligraphy (verso), folio from an Ottoman album. Across Iran, India and Turkey, from the sixteenth century at least, albums (or muraqqa`) had become an important way of storing and presenting one's diverse collection of artworks on paper: valuable specimens of calligraphy, single-page paintings or drawings, and even European prints, all re-mounted in a careful sequence. This album was compiled in early seventeenth-century Ottoman Istanbul, probably for a private citizen. Album-page, ink, colours and gold on paper, mounted on gold-flecked card, painting with calligraphy (recto) and calligraphy with tinted drawing (verso), one of twelve detached folios from an Ottoman album, assembled Istanbul, Turkey, c. 1620. Recto: coffee house scene with men drinking, reading and playing board games, Persian calligraphy in nasta`liq script, mounted on marbled (ebru) paper. Verso: panel of Persian poetry in nasta`liq script signed Shah Mahmud Nishapuri, tinted drawing of two angels with hunting birds, lightly inscribed Bihzad, mounted on gold-flecked paper.

Materyal Paper (material), Pigment (material), Ink (material), Gold

Nesne Adı Folio / Bi-Folio (Codex)

Yazı Tipi Nasta'liq script