2014.335: Pen Box with Flowers and Birds

Identification and Creation

Object Number

2014.335

Title

Pen Box with Flowers and Birds

Classification

Artists' Tools

Work Type

pen box

Date

c. 1850-1875

Places

Creation Place: Middle East, Iran

Persistent Link

https://hvrd.art/o/351866

Physical Descriptions

Medium

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

Dimensions

3.7 × 3.9 × 24.7 cm (1 7/16 × 1 9/16 × 9 3/4 in.)

Inscriptions and Marks

• inscription:
  Top:
  
  یا صاحب الزمان سنه ۱۱۸۹
  
  O Lord of Time! The year 1775-76
  
  
  
  
  Inside cover (maker’s seal):
  
  عبده الرجي محمد جواد
  
  His [God’s] hopeful servant Muhammad Javad

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

2014.335

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 similarly decorated with birds and flowers on black background. On the base a gold arabesque is painted on a red background. The inscription referencing the late 18th-century artist Aqa Muhammad Zaman provides a date earlier than the floruit for the maker of the pen box itself (third quarter 19th century), so should probably be understood as homage to the celebrated lacquer painter.

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. 30, 32, fig. 8; p. 142, cat. 130

Verification Level