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Identification and Creation

Object Number
2017.305
People
Mubarraz al-Shu'ara
Title
Pen Box with Figures in Indoor and Outdoor Settings, and Medallions
Classification
Artists' Tools
Work Type
pen box
Date
1903-1904
Period
Qajar period
Culture
Persian
Persistent Link
https://hvrd.art/o/355204

Physical Descriptions

Medium
Watercolor, gold-colored pigments, and lacquer over brass layer on pasteboard
Dimensions
3.6 × 3.7 × 21.6 cm (1 7/16 × 1 7/16 × 8 1/2 in.)

Provenance

Recorded Ownership History
Kazem R. Kooros, Houston, Texas (by 1969), gift; to his son Hamid Kooros, Houston, Texas (by 1979), gift; to the Harvard Art Museums, 2017.

Acquisition and Rights

Credit Line
Harvard Art Museums/Arthur M. Sackler Museum, Gift of Lily and Hamid Kooros
Accession Year
2017
Object Number
2017.305
Division
Asian and Mediterranean Art
Contact
am_asianmediterranean@harvard.edu
Permissions

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Descriptions

Description
This pen box is richly decorated on the top, front, and back with figural designs. The largest cartouches that hold the center of each side contain vignettes of Iranian men. The top central cartouche bears the artist’s signature Mubarraz al-Shu'ara, date 1321 H. (1903-1904), and a composition of men and boys gathered in a brick courtyard to hear the words of a figure whose green turban suggests he is a descendant of the Prophet Muhammad. This scene is flanked by cartouches of beautiful young women in Iranian dress reclining in terraces, attended by servants. On the front and back sides, the central cartouche of a gathering of men is flanked by oval medallions of a young man and women in Iranian dress. The ends bear continuous compositions of human and animal figures traversing the landscape. All figural vignettes are framed with gold rococo scrollwork.

Publication History

  • David Roxburgh and Mary McWilliams, ed., Technologies of the Image: Art in 19th-Century Iran, exh. cat., Harvard Art Museums (Cambridge, MA, 2017), pp.156-157, cat. 76

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