Bookbinding — [Persian binding], [1500-1599]

Bookbinding — [Persian binding], [1500-1599] is an object recorded by Victoria and Albert Museum, dated [1500-1599]. The museum's brief description reads: Book binding, lower cover, Persian, 16th century..

Museum description: 1 binding (upper and lower covers) ; 30 x 19 cm. Title supplied by cataloguer. The upper and lower covers of a bookbinding; detailed lacquer painted work on exterior and inner covers over paper pasteboards. The upper cover has a narrow gold painted border.The central panel has a black ground with a scene of an open air feast. A prince is seated on a rug beneath a tree with bowls of fruit and a water container in front of him.

A servant is kneeling offering more food. Other servants are shown either preparing food on a spit, as in the near foreground or playing music on lutes and a tambourine. Behind the prince stand two attendants, one of whom carries a rug, the other bearing a bow and quiver of arrows. This suggests the link with the lower cover which shows four horsemen hunting deer. Three of these are armed with bows and arrows. In the upper left corner a falconer and attendant are… The museum record gives measurements Length 306 mm.

These details come from the holding museum's own record; how far this object represents a wider collectible type has not yet been independently verified.