Illustration to the Guy u Chawgan (The Ball and the Polo Stick) of 'Arifi showing a polo game, Iran, about 1880; mounted on a board and given an illuminated frame, 1880s.

This painting and E.4584-1910 were acquired by the Paris-based art dealer Frédéric Spitzer (1815–1890), who was born into a humble Jewish family in Pozsony in Hungary (known as Pressburg in German; now Bratislava, Slovakia; see Isidore Singer, ed., The Jewish Encyclopaedia, 12 volumes, New York, 1901–6, s.v. “Spitzer, Friedrich (Samuel). This shows that the two paintings were mounted and illuminated in Tehran before his death in 1890.

Spitzer’s success in business allowed him to build up a huge collection of his own, most of which was auctioned in Paris in 1893 following the instructions in his will (See Archives Directory for the History of Collecting in America, “Spitzer, Frédéric”; in references). The sale, which lasted 17 days, was attended by George Salting (1835–1909), an Australian-born collector of Danish extraction (See The Dictionary of National Biography. “Salting, George” by Stephen Coppel, in references), Salting bought almost one-tenth of the lots, including these two paintings, and the transfer of ownership was recorded in a note on the reverse of both mounts, which reads “Collection / 1893 / Spitzer”.

When Salting died, he bequeathed the largest part of his collection to the Victoria and Albert Museum, and the bequest included the two paintings in question.

E.4585-1910 has the number 1228 written on the back, while E.4584-1910 is numbered 1227. The inscriptions on the back of the mount also include the following record of expenditure, in code:
Cost to illuminate D R/-
Cost S R/-
The D and S presumably indicate the sums paid in riyāls.

Tim Stanley

E.4585-1910