2014.325: Pen Box with Armenian Priests and Europeans

Identification and Creation

Object Number

2014.325

People

Muhammad Isma`il

Title

Pen Box with Armenian Priests and Europeans

Classification

Artists' Tools

Work Type

pen box

Date

1857-1858

Places

Creation Place: Middle East, Iran, Isfahan

Period

Qajar period

Persistent Link

https://hvrd.art/o/351840

Physical Descriptions

Medium

Opaque watercolor, gold-colored pigments, brass particles, and lacquer over brass layer on pasteboard

Dimensions

3.7 × 4.1 × 24.7 cm (1 7/16 × 1 5/8 × 9 3/4 in.)

Inscriptions and Marks

• inscription: Top:
  عمل اسمعيل۱۲۷۴
  The work of Isma`il, 1857-58
  
  
  [Inscribed on the sides and base are verses from the tarji` band by Hatif Isfahani.]
  
  
  Inside cover (maker’s seal):
  عبده الرجي محمد جواد۱۲۷۱
  His [God’s] hopeful servant Muhammad Javad, 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

2014.325

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 with a crowd dressed in European clothing paying homage to an Armenian priest with acolytes, a domed building with bell towers in the background, and Europeans riding on horseback and in carriages. The sides of the cover are painted with three-quarter length winged angels and additional figural scenes. The vignettes on the front and back reference the famous tarji`-band of Hatif of Isfahan, and cartouches carry minutely written inscriptions from that poem. The ends illustrate episodes from the story of Shaykh San`an and the Christian Maiden, from Farid al-Din `Attar’s Manṭiq al-ṭayr. The base features additional inscriptions and a gold arabesque painted on a black background. On the inside of the mouth of the cover can be seen the makers mark of Muhammad Javad (fl. 1857-after 1870).
The sliding compartment is also decorated. Two recessed panels on the front and back of the compartment bear additional scenes of Shaykh San`an and the Christian Maiden.

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. 40-41, fig. 5; pp. 74-75, ill.; p. 133, cat. 103
• Katherine Eremin and Claire Grech, Materials and Techniques of Persian Laquerwork, 2017, Figure 5, Page 41

Exhibition History

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

Verification Level