Unregistered

Can someone identify this please? Any leads would be greatly appreciated. Here's the link, click the picture, and that was the only way I could hold it without getting a huge glare on the picture.

http://s1179.photobucket.com/albums/x392/RareJolteon/

Thanks

John

This album apparently requires a password.

Unregistered

sorry! Try now http://s1179.photobucket.com/albums/x392/RareJolteon/

ARTalker

Well! The print you have could be an enlargement of a Persian Miniature that probably accompanied one of the translations of the Shahnameh – The Book of Kings, an epic poem by Firdausi written around 1000 A.D. It is the longest poem ever written (over 55,000 very long lines – so more like a 10,000 line poem!).

The Shahnameh describes the adventures and exploits of the Persian Kings and the formation of the Persian Empire (Iran was known as Persia at that time) to the 7th century A.D up to the period of the Arab Invasion. It has great & fantastical imagery (e.g. slaying monsters, or travelling to the underworld) as well as tender moments (falling in love). Miniatures (illustrations in a handwritten manuscript) accompanied the poem, and note that other translations used other miniatures.

Note both poem and author can be found under many spellings (Shanameh, Shahnama… Fedosi, Ferdowsi, etc..)

I can’t be precise about who painted the miniature you have. In fact, if you go to Amazon.com right now you’ll see a detail of your work on the cover of the following book – The Shahnameh- the Persian Book of Kings. However, note that your work has small differences. I don’t know if your work is an enlargement from a real miniature or if it is a large modern painting based on one of the miniatures. BUT do also note that there are MANY variations (some very old), and many translations and miniatures all depicting the same story. If you seek, you might find…good luck!
This fabulous site will provide you with all you need to know about The Shahnameh, Firdausi and the miniatures. Have fun!
http://shahnama.caret.cam.ac.uk/new/jnama/page/
“This site brings you a comprehensive collection of manuscripts of the Shahnama, the Persian epic 'Book of Kings', completed by the poet Firdausi in AD 1010, together with a display of the miniature paintings in each one. There are currently about 1500 manuscripts and single pages recorded, 18,000 records of paintings, and 12,000 images from all over the world, now accessible with a few clicks of a mouse.
It allows you to see and compare all the different depictions of a particular scene in the story, produced over a period of almost 600 years, and to look through the manuscripts held in different collections…”

Unregistered

Whoa thanks that's way more than I could have hoped for, any way to check the value for it?

John

Very interesting. Thanks for all that detail.

As for value, is this a printed copy or do you think it could be hand-painted?

Unregistered

I honestly have no idea, all I know is that it has these straight pencil marks (at least they look like pencil marks to me) around the borders. I took pictures of the marks, here's the link

http://s1179.photobucket.com/albums/x392/RareJolteon/

I can't find any signature either.

ARTalker

What is the exact size of the image? And, what is the exact size of the item with the border (is it a "page" or is it a large/poster sized print)

These were originally miniatures so unless it's quite small, it's probably not worth too much. Originals works are usually not much bigger than 14" x 8" (page size) with the actual miniatures - colored paintings - being much smaller.