Incorrect Username, Email, or Password
This object does not yet have a description.

Identification and Creation

Object Number
2014.340
People
Abu’l-Hasan al-Ghaffari Naqqash-Bashi
`Abd al-Vahhab Muzahhib-Bashi Shirazi
Title
Pen Box with the Virgin and Child
Classification
Artists' Tools
Work Type
pen box
Date
1854-1855
Places
Creation Place: Middle East, Iran
Period
Qajar period
Culture
Persian
Persistent Link
https://hvrd.art/o/351827

Physical Descriptions

Medium
Opaque watercolor, gold-colored pigments, and lacquer over brass and tin layers on pasteboard
Dimensions
3.2 × 3.6 × 21.8 cm (1 1/4 × 1 7/16 × 8 9/16 in.)
Inscriptions and Marks
  • inscription:


    راقمه ابوالحسن الغفاری نقاشباشی



    یا وهّاب ۱۲۷۱



    Painted by Abu al-Hasan al-Ghaffari, Chief Painter



    O Munificent One! 1854-55



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
2014.340
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 an oblong cartouche containing the Virgin and Child, a white-bearded man, and a winged putto. The rest of the top and the sides are covered with densely painted illumination. The base and outer surfaces of the compartment are painted with a gold arabesque on a red background. Inside the compartment, multicolored flowers are painted on a gold background.

Publication History

  • 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. 140, cat. 122
  • David Roxburgh and Mary McWilliams, ed., Technologies of the Image: Art in 19th-Century Iran, exh. cat., Harvard Art Museums (Cambridge, MA, 2017), pp. 152-153, cat. 63

Exhibition History

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