2014.360: Pen Box with the Virgin and Child, and Parrots in Medallions

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

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