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Small rectangular mirror case with painting of woman giving birth on lid

This rectangular case consists of a mirror surrounded by a yellow frame with a vine-like pattern. A lid sits within the frame. The lid is painted with a scene of a medium-skinned reclining woman surrounded by six other medium-skinned women. The central woman’s eyes are closed, and her white gown is pulled up above her legs. A basket below her thighs holds a baby. On the reverse side of the lid, the same women surround a child while a woman in a long white veil performs a circumcision on him.

Identification and Creation

Object Number
2014.383
Title
Mirror Case with Scenes of a Baby Boy's Birth and Circumcision
Classification
Mirrors
Work Type
mirror case
Date
c. 1830-1850
Places
Creation Place: Middle East, Iran
Period
Qajar period
Culture
Persian
Persistent Link
https://hvrd.art/o/351903

Physical Descriptions

Medium
Opaque watercolor, gold-colored pigments, and lacquer on pasteboard
Dimensions
frame: 23.8 × 15.3 × 1.6 cm (9 3/8 × 6 × 5/8 in.)
lid: 20.9 × 12.6 × 0.4 cm (8 1/4 × 4 15/16 × 3/16 in.)

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
2014.383
Division
Asian and Mediterranean Art
Contact
am_asianmediterranean@harvard.edu
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Descriptions

Description
Rectangular mirror case with fitted lid. This mirror case is decorated with figural scenes celebrating the birth and circumcision of a baby boy. All of the vignettes take place on a well appointed porch with red drapery and a distant view of trees. On one side of the lid, a young woman has just given birth to a tiny baby. She is attended by a midwife, while attendants wrap the afterbirth. On the other side of the lid, a servant brings melon to two women who are seated on either side of the naked, smiling baby. On the back of the case is a circumcision scene.

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. 60-61, ill.; p. 109, cat. 35
  • David Roxburgh and Mary McWilliams, ed., Technologies of the Image: Art in 19th-Century Iran, exh. cat., Harvard Art Museums (Cambridge, MA, 2017), p. 24, detail; p. 42, fig. 32; pp. 150-151, cat. 54

Exhibition History

Verification Level

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