Sotheby’s is to offer what is described as an unparalleled collection of Indian miniature paintings from a single owner at an upcoming sale in the UK.

Belonging to Sven Gahlin, the collection will be sold during Sotheby’s India and Islamic Art Week, which runs from October 2 to 7.

The collection comprises 157 exquisite lots, with an unparalleled group of finely painted Indian miniature painting at its core. 

Ranging from the 16th to the 19th centuries and encompassing the Mughal, Deccani and Rajput courts, as well as Company School painting from the period of the British Raj, these works are remarkable for their distinguished provenance and exhibition history. 

Many of the paintings are signed by or attributed to royal court artists, commissioned by the elite of the age, providing a glimpse into the refinement, power and privilege of courtly life.

Gahlin is renowned for his connoisseurship and began actively collecting in the 1960s. The majority of this outstanding collection has not been seen on the market for decades. 

The collection will go on show in for the first time at Sotheby’s New Bond Street Galleries in London from October 2 ahead of the auction on October 6.  Estimates range from £500 up to £80,000 ($775-124,100).

Here are some of the highlights:


A prince holding a falcon and galloping through a rocky landscape, Deccan, Golconda, circa 1680-1700. Estimate: £60,000 -80,000 ($93,075-124,100).

This painting, depicting Mughal royalty, is a magnificent example of Deccani art, combining the intense yet dreamlike character of Deccani painting with the regal formality of the Mughal school of painting. This piece was exhibited in London at the Hayward Gallery in 1982.


A piebald stallion, Deccan, Ahmadnagar or Bijapur, circa 1560-80. Estimate: £30,000 -40,000 ($46,537- 62,050).

The style of this elegant miniature of a piebald horse standing next to a spear ultimately derives from Persian and Central Asian painting of the late fifteenth and early sixteenth century, transformed in an Indian context.


A lady with the young Tobias in a landscape, attributed to Keshav Das, circa 1575-80. Estimate: £50,000 -70,000 ($77,562-108,587).

This early work is by Keshav Das (also known as Kesu Das), one of the leading painters of Emperor Akbar's royal atelier. It shows the strong influence of European engravings, which began to appear with the arrival of Portuguese Christians and Jesuit missionaries at the Mughal court. The subject depicted here is a variation on the Biblical story of Tobias and the Angel, which was a popular theme with Mughal artists.


The Emperor Bahadur Shah I enthroned, attributable to Bhavanidas, Mughal, circa 1707. Estimate: £60,000 - 80,000 ($93,075-124,100).

This miniature is an important example of Mughal ceremonial court art in the early eighteenth century. It was probably painted as an accession portrait and depicts the Emperor Bahadur Shah I (r.1707-12) receiving his four sons while seated on the Peacock Throne. It is attributable to Bhavanidas, the leading artist at the Mughal court at this time.


The emperor Akbar Shah (r.1806-37) II in Durbar, attributable to Ghulam Murtaza Khan Musavvir, Mughal, Delhi, circa 1810. Estimate: £15,000 -20,000 ($23,268-31,025).

This painting of a durbar of the Emperor Akbar Shah II (r.1806-37) is one of the earliest known versions of this subject and is attributed to the favourite court painter of the time, Ghulam Murtaza Khan Musavvir. Akbar Shah’s four sons are shown standing immediately in front of this artist's version of the peacock throne: notably, Abu Zafar Siraj al-Din Muhammad, standing to his right, the heir apparent, who was to become the last Mughal emperor as Bahadur Shah II. Bahadur Shah’s life is retold in William Dalrymple’s “The Last Mughal: The Fall of Delhi, 1857”.


A yellow-backed woodpecker, Mughal, attributed to Mansur, circa 1585–90. Estimate: £50,000-70,000 ($77,562-108,582).

This work, depicting a Black-Rumped Flameback Woodpecker, has been exhibited at the British Museum and widely published. It is attributed to the great Mughal master Mansur, the most skilled and illustrious of the Indian painters of fauna and flora in the seventeenth century.


A portrait of Khan Zaman with shield and sword, attributable to Bichitr, Mughal, circa 1630. Estimate: £30,000 -40,000 ($46,537- 62,050).

The album to which this painting once belonged, known as the Small Clive Album, was acquired during Lord Clive's last visit to India between 1765 and 1767, probably as a gift from Shuja' Al Daula, Nawab of Oudh (r.1754-75). The majority of the album, containing 56 Mughal miniatures of seventeenth-‐and eighteenth-‐century origin, was sold by the Earl of Powis, his direct descendant, at Sotheby’s in 1956.

Sotheby’s has been uniting collectors with world-class works of art since 1744.  Sotheby’s  became  the  first international auction house when it expanded from London to New York (1955), the first to conduct sales in Hong Kong (1973), India (1992) and France (2001), and the first international fine art auction house in China (2012).  Today, Sotheby’s presents auctions in 10 different salesrooms, including New  York, London, Hong Kong and Paris,  and Sotheby’s BidNow programme allows visitors to view all auctions live online and place bids from anywhere in the world.