Preservation & Repair > (Re)painting
Heavy-handed interventions on existing bindings can sometimes be found, as with the case of painted leather. Since a small number of luxury bindings were originally designed with polychromy (as with Ja'far Kashi's Tuhfat al-muluk, discussed in the next section), its addition might have been a method for booksellers to buoy a volume's second-hand price.
Al-Lārī, Loosening and Binding of the Constellations
Text: Anjudan, Iran, 1033 AH/1624 CE, signed by Muhammad Taqi ibn Mawlana Muhammad
Binding: Iran, 18th/19th century
Gold and paint on leather over pasteboard
MS Or. 35
Mīr Khvānd, The Garden of Purity
Text: Iran, 976 AH/1568 CE
Binding: Iran, ca. 1692–1701 or later
Gold and paint on leather over pasteboard
MS Or. 81
For Loosening and Binding of the Constellations, an otherwise conventional blind-stamped leather cover is enlivened by polychrome painting. The manuscript's colophon notes that it was completed in 1624 in Anjudan—a provincial town, home to the minority Nizari sect, which scholars today would little associate with manuscript production. Nevertheless, royal Safavid patronage is known to have waxed and waned beginning in the 1550's; throughout much of the 17th century, artists—perhaps including the copyist of this work—instead found support in the employ of regional governors. The leather binding is clearly part of a later refurbishment, while the polychrome flowers may have been added in yet a subsequent campaign.
Meanwhile, this volume of the Rawzat al-safa' reflects another circuit of artistic migration for patronage, namely to south Asia. Copied in Iran, transported to India, but later returned to Iran, this codex has a complex history of interventions. The binding may date from as early as the 1690s, on the basis of a flyleaf inscription, although comparable examples are mostly found in the later 18th century. The painted horseman on the lower-left corner is certainly much later, likely added in the early 20th century and following a "retro-Safavid" style.