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PROPERTY FROM THE ASBJORN LUNDE FOUNDATION
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A PORTRAIT OF PRINCE DARA SHIKOH FROM A 1971, lot 56). The distinctive treatment of the prince’s face and the
POLIER ALBUM surrounding landscape follows the work ascribed to Mihr Chand.
STYLE OF MIHR CHAND, PROVINCIAL MUGHAL, FAIZABAD OR
LUCKNOW, 1780 Antoine Louis Henri Polier, a native of Switzerland, worked as a
CALLIGRAPHY SIGNED AND DATED, ‘MUHAMMAD ‘ALI 1195’ surveyor in the East India Company. By 1758, he became Chief
(1780 CE) Engineer of the Bengal Army in Calcutta, and Chief Architect for the
Opaque watercolor, silver, gold, and ink on paper; the painting (recto) Kingdom of Oudh under the patronage of Nawab Shuja ud-Daula.
and calligraphy page (verso) laid on an album page with painted floral During his time in India, Polier studied and collected a number of
borders; recto with inscribed cartouche in the lower border ‘Dara Persian and Sanskrit manuscripts and miniatures. In 1767 he was
Shikoh’ and numbered ‘22’. gifted three albums commissioned by the Mughal prince Dara
Image: 8 3/4 x 4 5/8 in. (22.2 x 11.8 cm) Shikoh that served as the inspiration for the artist who produced this
Folio: 15 1/2 x 11 in. (39.3 x 28 cm) celebrated series.

$10,000 - 15,000 Upon his return to Europe, Polier sold the albums to the English
collector William Beckford, and in turn eleven of these eventually found
their way to the Museum für Islamische Kunst, Berlin (Losty, After the
This grand portrait of Prince Dara Shikoh (1615-59) comes from the Great Mughals, 2002, pp.43 & 46).
studio of Mihr Chand, whose enlightened patron, Antoine Louis Henri
Polier (1741–95), commissioned multiple albums inspired by the works Muhammad ‘Ali contributed numerous pages to the Polier albums
of past masters of the early Mughal period. Folios from Polier Albums and may even have been responsible for the compilation of one of
all share distinctively wide borders with bold and somewhat loose floral the volumes, now in the Victoria & Albert Museum, London. He has
sprays. been identified as Mirza Muhammad ‘Ali, the son of Mirza Khayrullah
Farmanniwis, who lived in Lucknow and was in the service of Wazir
Prince Dara Shikoh was the eldest son of Emperor Shah Jahan ‘Ali Khan (1780-1817). For his biography, see Stronge & Moghaddam,
and was favored to accede to the throne until he was defeated ‘An Unrecorded Polier Muraqqac (c.1785)’, in Adle Nāmeh: Studies in
and killed by his brother Aurangzeb. In emulation of his father, he is Memory of Chahriyar Adle, 2018, pp.195-228.
depicted holding a sword over his shoulder and a whisk in his hand,
common attributes of royal Mughal portraits. Compare with portraits Provenance:
of Shah Jahan in the National Museum of Asian Art in Washington, Maggs Bros. Ltd., London, 15 September 1967
D.C. (S1986.405), in Goswamy and Fischer, Wonders of a Golden Collection of Asbjorn Lunde (1927-2017), New York
Age, 1987, no.45, pp.99-100, as well as with an elderly portrait of
Shah Jahan from the Manley collection (Sotheby’s, London, 14 July

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