PROPERTY FROM THE PRIVATE COLLECTION OF RUTH AND CYRUS JHABVALA (LOTS 10-65)


Ruth Prawer Jhabvala CBE (1927-2013) was an eminent writer, winner of the Booker Prize and two-time Oscar Award winner, perhaps best known for her long collaboration with Merchant Ivory Productions lead by director James Ivory and the late producer Ismail Merchant. Born in Germany, she studied and worked in London until meeting Cyrus S. H. Jhabvala, an Indian-Parsiarchitect. The couple moved to New Delhi, and subsequently New York and had three daughters. Ruth PrawerJhabvalawrote novels and tales on Indian, European and American subjects, writing a dozen novels, 23 screenplays, and eight collections of short stories. She was made a CBE in 1998 and granted a joint fellowship by BAFTA in 2002 with Ivory and Merchant. She is the only person to have won both a Booker Prize and an Oscar.


Cyrus Jhabvala (1920-2014) was born in Bombay (Mumbai) and studied architecture, leaving for London in 1946 where he worked for the British Ministry of Works as well as private architecture firms. He moved back to Delhi and met R.G. Anand an architect from Lahore, the two of them setting up AAJ, which was amongst the first post-independence Indian architectural firms which rebuilt Delhi to suit a newly independent nation.The success of the firm’s vision of a modernist style for India saw it carry out over 400 residential, commercial, interior design and exhibition design projects. He was made a Fellow of the Royal Institute of British Architects. Jhabvala combined practice with teaching, and headed the Delhi School of Planning and Architecture for many years.


Jhabvala was also an artist and painter. His sketches were incredibly detailed, prompting James Ivory to write that his work was “as precise as the 19th century photographs... there is a tradition of Indian miniatures that Jhabvala has tapped; it is one of meticulous detail. Some of these paintings remind me of the Mewar school at the end of the 18th century and the beginning of the 19th” (James Ivory, ‘Old Delhi-New York: Personal Views’, Lustre/Roli Books, 2008).


The Jhabvala collection comprises mainly Indian miniature paintings reflecting the couples combined love of story-telling and Indian visual culture.


10 A fragment of a drawing of Mahout with the King, Ajmer, 18th century, ink on paper, shown on a mount, identified in Persian above, mounted, 10 x 8cm £100-150 + 27.6% BP*


11 Narasimha killing the demon Hiranyakishipu, Jodhpur or Nathdwara, 19th century, gouache on paper heightened with gilt, 22 x 28cm £100-200 + 27.6% BP*


12 A hunting scene with a prince and princess on horseback and young women with flywhisks at their side, Jaipur, 19th century, gouache on paper, heightened with gilt, set within an oval, mountains to the distance, 21.5 x 16.5cm £600-800 + 27.6% BP*


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