Miniature Qur’an, €48,000 (£42,480) at Bonhams Cornette de Saint Cyr.
They opened with a small group of illuminated Qur’ans, of which the most expensive was this miniature Qur’an measuring just 1½x 1¼in (4 x 3.5cm).
Probably produced in north Africa and dated to the 15th-16th century and later, the leather-bound Arabic manuscript has 22-26 lines of naskhi script to the page with illuminated marginal devices and five double pages of illumination decorated to the outer margins with floral, geometric and knot motifs.
Estimated at €12,000-17,000, it ended up selling for €48,000 (£42,480).
Miniature manuscripts like these were designed to be carried on the owner’s person primarily for their talismanic or protective properties, generally carried in a silver case and hung around the neck or as a bazuband on the upper arm.
