A rare and early Iznik pottery bowl dated around 1510 from Turkey’s Ottoman Empire has sold for over £1.4 million at auction. The white bowl decorated in two shades of blue with Cyprus trees and cartouches was sold by Christies in London to an anonymous bidder setting a new auction record for Iznik pottery.

Read More: Rare Ottoman Bowl Breaks World Record at Auction

An important painting of a Great Indian fruit bat or flying fox (Pteropus giganteus) with its 1.5 meter wingspan sold for £458,500 at Bonhams Islamic and Indian Art sale in London yesterday [8th April]. The sale achieved a total of £4.5 million. This pen and ink, watercolor with gum arabic, heightened with bodycolour, on watermarked paper, from the Calcutta Collection of Lady Impey and painted by the artist Bhawani Das, had been estimated to sell for £80,000-£120,000, but its final price was four times higher than expected.

Read More: Painting of Fruit Bat from Impey Album Leads Bonhams Islamic and Indian Art Auction

The magnificent and extremely rare life-size Qajar royal portrait of Fath ‘Ali Shah attended by a prince, attributed to Mihr ‘Ali, circa 1820 CE, sold for £2,994,500 (inclusive of buyers premium) at Sotheby’s ‘Arts of the Islamic World’ auction today [9th April 2014]. A round of applause greeted the fall of the hammer at £2.6 million, a bid executed by Edward Gibbs, Head of Department, and Chairman, Middle East & India, acting on behalf of an anonymous telephone buyer.

Read More: Royal Portrait of Fath ‘Ali Shah

Bonhams will sell three stunning images from The Fraser Album, discovered amongst the papers of this Scottish family in 1979, at its next auction of Indian and Islamic art on 8 April 2014 in London. The Album consists of more than ninety watercolours of breathtaking quality, which provide an extraordinary portrait of life in and around Delhi in the early 19^th Century. This was an area which was relatively unknown to the British at that date, with Mughal control ceded to them only in 1803 and the Emperor nominally in power.

Read More: Pictures from the Fraser Album to go on Sale in London

See also: Rare 19th Century Indian Paintings up for Auction

The Arts of the Islamic World auction to be held at Sotheby’s, London, on April 9th 2014 is led by a magnificent Qajar royal portrait of Fath ‘Ali Shah. Estimated at £1,500,000 – £2,500,000, this life-size portrait is one of sixteen that are recorded, of which only four are present in Western museum collections. Fath ‘Ali Shah was the pre-eminent Qajar emperor of Persia and, as a key patron of the arts, he commissioned a number of monumental portraits, using these images as tools of propaganda, immortalising his rule. This painting is attributed to Mihr ‘Ali, one of the preferred painters of the Qajar court.

Read More: Royal Portrait of Fath ‘Ali Shah to be Offered at Auction in London

See video: Anatomy of an Artwork – A Qajar Royal Portrait