Qet-e bandi composition, Safavid Iran, Shiraz, 16th century Album page combining a manuscript folio and a gouache-on-paper illustration pasted on blue card stock speckled with gold. The folio, taken from Sa'adi's Ghazaliat, has 5 lines of text in two columns above an illuminated title cartouche, obliquely calligraphed in the margins in Persian nasta'liq in black ink in white reserves on a gold background punctuated with polychrome flowers. A second cartouche in the margin is also decorated with gold floral spandrels on a blue background. The gouache, probably taken from a Persian epic, depicts a man on a mule, preceded by a walking man who appears to be conversing with a third, in a landscape of hills behind which three observers can be seen. 19.5 x 10.7 cm; total folio size: 25.2 x 15.9 cm Slight stains, small splashes of polychromy.