Harvard Art Museums > 2014.361: Pen Box with Persian Women in Medallions Artists' Tools Collections Search Exit Deep Zoom Mode Zoom Out Zoom In Reset Zoom Full Screen Add to Collection Order Image Copy Link Copy Citation Citation"Pen Box with Persian Women in Medallions (Muhammad Baqir Samirumi) , 2014.361,” Harvard Art Museums collections online, Apr 18, 2024, https://hvrd.art/o/351828. Reuse via IIIF Toggle Deep Zoom Mode Download This object does not yet have a description. Identification and Creation Object Number 2014.361 People Muhammad Baqir Samirumi Title Pen Box with Persian Women in Medallions Classification Artists' Tools Work Type pen box Date 1909-1910 Places Creation Place: Middle East, Iran, Isfahan Period Qajar period Culture Persian Persistent Link https://hvrd.art/o/351828 Physical Descriptions Medium Oil paint, gold-colored pigments, and lacquer on pasteboard Dimensions 3.5 × 3.2 × 19.9 cm (1 3/8 × 1 1/4 × 7 13/16 in.) Inscriptions and Marks inscription: 303 Samīrumī 1327 303 [Baqir] Samirumi 1909-10 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 2014.361 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. In the center is a full-length portrait of an Iranian woman in a black jacket and floor-length skirt; above and below are bust-length female portraits. 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 black background. The artist Muhammad Baqir Samirumi sometimes added 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. 158, cat. 180 David Roxburgh and Mary McWilliams, ed., Technologies of the Image: Art in 19th-Century Iran, exh. cat., Harvard Art Museums (Cambridge, MA, 2017), pp. 156-157, cat. 77 Exhibition History Technologies of the Image: Art in 19th-Century Iran, Harvard Art Museums, Cambridge, 08/26/2017 - 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
