Exploring the Preetorius Collection at the Museum Five Continents, Munich
This week, Mandana and Theresa had the pleasure of visiting the Museum Five Continents (Museum Fünf Kontinente) in Munich to study objects from the Islamic holdings of the Preetorius Collection. The visit formed part of Mandana’s ongoing doctoral research, which focuses on the collector and the formation of his Islamic art collection. Theresa accompanied her with a particular interest in identifying and examining examples of decorated paper that may be relevant to the GLOBAL DECO PAPER project.
Together with curator Dr. Anahita Mittertrainer, they were able to view a remarkable range of material, including both manuscript folios and single leaves originating from albums. The collection revealed a fascinating diversity of decorative techniques. Among the highlights was a folio with a striking turquoise-coloured text area, whose manuscript is today preserved in the Chester Beatty in Dublin. They also encountered several examples of gold-flecked and gold-dusted papers, alongside silver-sprinkled surfaces that demonstrated different approaches to metallic embellishment.
Equally intriguing were instances of pasted cut-outs, such as coloured cartouches inserted into reused frames, illustrating the layered material histories that album pages often contain. One particularly interesting discovery was a frame decorated with stencilling in a delicate light purple tone – an exciting find for our research on stencilled paper across the Islamicate world. Another manuscript proved especially noteworthy, combining gold-dusted text panels with borders made of blue-swirled marbled paper, offering valuable comparative material for understanding the interaction between marbling and other decorative techniques.
They were generously granted permission to use their equipment, which allowed them to study the folios in detail. This close analysis enabled them to identify watermarks and to observe technical aspects such as the size and distribution of gold sprinkles – crucial data for ongoing research into production methods and material characteristics.
The team would like to express their sincere thanks to Dr. Anahita Mittertrainer and to the conservator Carolin Binninger, M.A., for facilitating the visit and for their support in providing access to these fascinating objects. Such opportunities for close collaboration between curators, conservators, and researchers are invaluable for advancing the understanding of decorated paper traditions.