A panel in nasta'liq by Mahdi 'Ali Khan Hamadani, c.1700-10

Source: http://www.christies.com/LotFinder/search/LotDetail.asp?sid=&intObjectID=4160855&SE=CMWCAT04+116872+314421109+&QR=M+1+72+Aqc0000900+106920++Aqc0000900+&entry=india&SU=1&RQ=True&AN=73
(downloaded Sept. 2003)

"TWO PRINCES HUNTING by Tahir, Mughal India or Marwar, circa 1700-1710. Gouache heightened with gold on paper, two richly-dressed young princes on horseback hunting a tiger and a boar with arrows in a landscape, signed in black below amal-i tahir, verso with a calligraphic panel in nasta'liq within gold clouds, signed Mehdi 'Ali Khan Hamadani. Miniature 11 1/8 x 7 5/8in. (28.3 x 19.4cm.)

Literature:
Glynn, C.: Indian Paintings from Staff Collections, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, 1972, no.31.
Pal, Pratapaditya: The Flute and the Brush : Indian Paintings from the William Theo Brown and Paul Wonner collection : an Exhibition, Newport Beach, California, 1976, pl.47.

Lot Notes: A similar painting of a bear hunt was sold in these Rooms 14 April 1976, lot 60. The note to that entry compares it to f.101 in the Large Clive Album in the Victoria and Albert Museum.

The artist, Tahir, who was originally attached to Aurangzeb's atelier, is briefly discussed by J Seyller: "The Inspection and valuation of manuscripts in the Imperial Mughal Library" Artibus Asiae, vol.LVII, no¾, p.317."