2014.360: Pen Box with the Virgin and Child, and Parrots in Medallions
Artists' Tools
This object does not yet have a description.
Identification and Creation
- Object Number
- 2014.360
- People
-
Muhammad Baqir Samirumi
- Title
- Pen Box with the Virgin and Child, and Parrots in Medallions
- Classification
- Artists' Tools
- Work Type
- pen box
- Date
- 1905-1906
- Places
- Creation Place: Middle East, Iran, Isfahan
- Period
- Qajar period
- Persistent Link
- https://hvrd.art/o/351822
Physical Descriptions
- Medium
- Oil paint, gold-colored pigments, platy hematite particles, and lacquer on pasteboard
- Dimensions
- 3.7 × 3.7 × 22.2 cm (1 7/16 × 1 7/16 × 8 3/4 in.)
- Inscriptions and Marks
-
-
inscription: 303 Samīrumī 1323
303 Samirumi, 1905-06
-
inscription: 303 Samīrumī 1323
Provenance
- Recorded Ownership History
-
Ezzat-Malek Soudavar, Geneva, Switzerland (by 2014), by descent; to her son Abolala Soudavar, Houston, Texas (2014), gift; to Harvard Art Museums, 2014.
Note:
Ezzat-Malek Soudavar (1913-2014) formed this collection over a period of sixty years. She purchased the works of art on the international art market.
Acquisition and Rights
- Credit Line
- Harvard Art Museums/Arthur M. Sackler Museum, Gift of A. Soudavar in memory of his mother Ezzat-Malek Soudavar
- Accession Year
- 2014
- Object Number
- 2014.360
- Division
- Asian and Mediterranean Art
- Contact
- am_asianmediterranean@harvard.edu
- Permissions
-
The Harvard Art Museums encourage the use of images found on this website for personal, noncommercial use, including educational and scholarly purposes. To request a higher resolution file of this image, please submit an online request.
Descriptions
- Description
- Cover and sliding compartment with rounded ends. The top is decorated in vertical format with three cartouches surrounded by dense gold arabesque. The central cartouche contains a Virgin and Child; above and below are parrots. The sides are composed in a similar manner with an oblong cartouche in the center that features animals in a mountainous landscape; to the right and left are small riverine landscapes. On the base, an arabesque is painted in gold on a red background. The artist Samirumi occasionally adds the number 303 to his signature. It has been suggested that this stands for the name “Baqir,” the letters of which have this numerical value.
Publication History
- Basil William Robinson, Qajar Lacquer, Muqarnas (1988), vol. VI, pp. 131-146, fig. 17
- Massumeh Farhad and Mary McWilliams, ed., A Collector’s Passion: Ezzat-Malek Soudavar and Persian Lacquer, Harvard Art Museums and Freer/Sackler Galleries, Smithsonian Institution (Cambridge, MA/Washington, D.C., 2017), p. 157, cat. 177
Exhibition History
- 32Q: 3620 University Study Gallery, Harvard Art Museums, Cambridge, 08/17/2017 - 01/07/2018
Verification Level
This record has been reviewed by the curatorial staff but may be incomplete. Our records are frequently revised and enhanced. For more information please contact the Division of Asian and Mediterranean Art at am_asianmediterranean@harvard.edu