Bonham’s upcoming Indian and Islamic art sale is going to be quite interesting, wethinks. The sale, to be held on October 4 in New bond Street, will display an 18th century Persian treasure which is undoubtedly going to attract a few raised eyebrows and some reaching out to dollar wads. It is a gilded celestial globe reportedly from Persia’s Zand dynasty and estimated to fetch somewhere between $64,000 and $96,000. The globe was passed down through a private English family and contains the position of 83 stars and their Persian names as well as the Persian names for the North and South Poles. The richly engraved globe, with gold and very fine script, was probably made for the Zand Dynasty ruler, Mohammad Karim Khan Zand.
The dynasty spanned for 44 years between 1751 and 1794. Such globes were used in the then-days primarily for solving problems in celestial astronomy. This globe is an extremely rare piece of treasure as there are only 200 such instruments left in private and museum collection worldwide.
[Artdaily]
