The illustrations provide an invaluable documentation of the various procedures involved in producing albums for the Mughal court. Commencing with the upper right and moving counterclockwise we first observe a worker preparing paper by energetically smoothing it with a heavy burnisher. Next, a bookbinder, surrounded by the tools of his trade, stamps designs onto a leather book cover. In the left margin are two woodworkers, one filing the edges of a bound book that is held together by a wooden clamp, and a second working with a saw to prepare a book stand. Then we see an artist smelting gold by blowing through a rod to intensify a fire in an open container; by his side are tools for pounding it into gold leaf. The last figure depicts a calligrapher, working at a low table and seen dipping his brush into a blue–and–white inkwell. The enclosed page of calligraphy consists of an aphorism, of the type much favored by both the Mughals and the Persians.