A Mughal prince standing in a landscape, holding a musket, sword and shield, formerly from an album made for William Fraser
Mughal, Delhi, circa 1800
pencil and gouache on paper, blue and orange gold-decorated inner borders, fine floral outer border
painting 187 x 105 mm.; album page 312 x 208 mm.
Footnotes:
Provenance
Malcolm R. Fraser, descendant of William and James Fraser.
Sotheby's, Fine Oriental Manuscripts, Miniatures and Qajar Lacquer, 13th-14th October 1980, lot 211 (not illustrated).
Formerly in the collection of Saeed Motamed (1925-2013).
Christie's South Kensington, The Saeed Motamed Collection: Part II, 7th October 2013, lot 271.
Private UK collection, 2013-present.

Five pages from the same album, all but one with the same distinctive floral borders as the present lot, were sold at Sotheby's, Arts of the Islamic World, 3rd October 2012, lots 85-89, amongst a section (lots 81-102) of works formerly in his possession. The borders of lots 82 and 84-87 are particularly close to that of our painting, and imitate 'high' Mughal 17th Century album pages.

All were formerly possessed by William Fraser (1784-1835), and remained in the Fraser family until the album was dispersed (as lots 183-211) in the 1980 Sotheby's sale mentioned above.

For another example of such a painting, a portrait of Sayyid Abu'l Muzaffar Khan, an early 19th Century copy of a 17th Century original by Lalchand (in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York), and with the same fine floral borders, see Sotheby's New York, Indian, Himalayan and Southeast Asian Art, 6th October 1990, lot 74.