2014.306: Pen Box with Flowers, Birds, and Hazelnuts

Identification and Creation

Object Number

2014.306

People

`Ali Ashraf

Title

Pen Box with Flowers, Birds, and Hazelnuts

Classification

Artists' Tools

Work Type

pen box

Date

mid-18th century

Places

Creation Place: Middle East, Iran

Period

Zand period

Persistent Link

https://hvrd.art/o/351835

Physical Descriptions

Medium

Opaque watercolor, gold-colored pigments, and lacquer on pasteboard

Dimensions

3.9 × 4 × 22.8 cm (1 9/16 × 1 9/16 × 9 in.)

Inscriptions and Marks

• inscription:
  این تحفه قلمدان که دهد شوق و شعف
  
  بخشد بگلستانِ جنان زیب و شرف
  
  شد رشکِ نگارخانهٔ چین نقشش
  
  از دستِ غلامِ شاه علی اشرف
  
  
  
  
  This rare pen box that gives strong desire and happiness
  
  Would bestow the rose­ garden of paradise with beauty and honor.
  
  Its painting became the envy of the picture­ gallery of China
  
  From the hand of the shah’s servant `Ali Ashraf.

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

2014.306

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 horizontal format. The top and sides are decorated with flowers, birds, and hazel nuts outlined in gold against a tan background. The outer surfaces of the compartment are decorated with cartouches containing floral motifs and Persian poetry.

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. 117, cat. 52

Exhibition History

• 32Q: 3620 University Study Gallery, Harvard Art Museums, Cambridge, 08/17/2017 - 01/07/2018

Verification Level