2014.303: Pen Box with Portrait Medallions on Floral Ground
Artists' Tools
This object does not yet have a description.
Identification and Creation
- Object Number
- 2014.303
- People
-
Haji Muhammad
- Title
- Pen Box with Portrait Medallions on Floral Ground
- Classification
- Artists' Tools
- Work Type
- stencil
- Date
- 1690-1691
- Places
- Creation Place: Middle East, Iran
- Period
- Safavid period
- Culture
- Persian
- Persistent Link
- https://hvrd.art/o/351829
Physical Descriptions
- Medium
- Opaque watercolor, gold-colored pigments, copper alloy particles, and lacquer over silver layer on pasteboard
- Dimensions
- 3.7 × 4.2 × 23.9 cm (1 7/16 × 1 5/8 × 9 7/16 in.)
- Inscriptions and Marks
-
-
inscription: هو العلی الاعاي
راقمه حاجی محمد في ۱۱۰۲
He! The most High.
It was painted by Haji Muhammad in 1692-93.
-
inscription: هو العلی الاعاي
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
- 2014.303
- 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 portrait medallions and two anchor pendants, surrounded by flowers painted on a red background. The inscription is written in the anchor pendants, and it reads, "He the Most High. It was painted by Haji Muhammad in 1102 H. (1690-1691)." The portraits are all of women, and the central figure wears a fanciful European gown. The sides are decorated with floral scrolls, which are continuous around the ends. The walls of the compartment bear gold landscape motifs on a red background. The base is plain red.
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), pp. 29-31, fig. 4; p. 115, cat. 46
- David Roxburgh and Mary McWilliams, ed., Technologies of the Image: Art in 19th-Century Iran, exh. cat., Harvard Art Museums (Cambridge, MA, 2017), pp. 35-36, fig. 18; pp. 148-149, cat. 50
Exhibition History
Verification Level
This record was created from historic documentation and may not have been reviewed by a curator; it may be inaccurate or 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