- Identification and Creation
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- Object Number
- 2014.307
- People
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`Ali Ashraf
- Title
- Pen Box with Flowers and Birds
- Classification
- Artists' Tools
- Work Type
- pen box
- Date
- 1776-1777
- Places
- Creation Place: Middle East, Iran
- Period
- Zand period
- Persistent Link
- https://hvrd.art/o/351838
- Physical Descriptions
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- Medium
- Opaque watercolor, gold-colored pigments, copper particles, and lacquer over brass layer on pasteboard
- Dimensions
- 3.6 × 4.2 × 24 cm (1 7/16 × 1 5/8 × 9 7/16 in.)
- Inscriptions and Marks
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-
inscription:
زبعد محمد علي اشرف است في سنه ۱۱۹۰
After Muhammad, `Ali is the noblest, in the year 1776-77
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inscription:
- Provenance
- 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
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- 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
- 2014.307
- Division
- Asian and Mediterranean Art
- Contact
- am_asianmediterranean@harvard.edu
- 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 densely decorated with a continuous frieze of birds and flying insects in mixed plants that sprout from the ground line. Plants include roses, hazelnuts, iris, hyacinths, and primrose. The base is painted with a gold arabesque on a black ground.
- Publication History
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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. 54
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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