GUEST: They belonged to my grandmother. Her mother bought them originally in New York, and then my grandmother died and she left them for me.
APPRAISER: Well, your grandmother made some wonderful purchases. These are beautiful pieces. These two pieces on this side here are from Shiraz in Persia. And they're late 16th, early 17th century. They're illustrating stories from this Kamsah Nezami. Nezami died in, like, 1209. And these stories were, like, stories from Sassanian Persia of about 500 years before. And they're various culture heroes and they're whole illustrations of their lives. These things are done on paper with mineral pigments and gold-- magnificently painted, really beautiful works. They're also purchased from a noted dealer in New York.
GUEST: Oh, they are?
APPRAISER: That's the name on the back: Khan Monif. Then on the other side, you have this one, right, which is a Mughal one, which was done in probably the 17th century. It's a completely different style from these other ones and was probably made in Rajasthan, in northern India. And just beautiful work. And then when you look at the back of it, you just see the really incredible calligraphy that's on there in two different styles with the blue borders and the gilt. And this blue was all powdered lapis lazuli. You're looking at quite a bit of money. This pair would probably sell for between $25,000 and $30,000.
GUEST: Wow.
APPRAISER: And this one here would probably sell for about $15,000 to $20,000 alone.
GUEST: (laughs quietly) Wow.
APPRAISER: They're just wonderful miniatures, beautifully done.
GUEST: I love them.
