2014.332: Pen Box with Flowers, Birds, and Butterflies

Identification and Creation

Object Number

2014.332

People

Muhammad Husayn Shirazi

Title

Pen Box with Flowers, Birds, and Butterflies

Classification

Artists' Tools

Work Type

pen box

Date

c. 1850-1875

Places

Creation Place: Middle East, Iran

Period

Qajar period

Persistent Link

https://hvrd.art/o/351818

Physical Descriptions

Medium

Opaque watercolor, gold-colored pigments, and lacquer on pasteboard

Dimensions

3.8 × 3.8 × 21.7 cm (1 1/2 × 1 1/2 × 8 9/16 in.)

Inscriptions and Marks

• inscription:
  میرزا اشرف افتخارِ زَمَن
  
  آسمانِ جلال و جاه و کرم
  
  باد رخشنده کوکبِ بختش
  
  تا بُود عرش و فرش و لوح و قلم
  
  
  
  بنده حسین ابن علی
  
  
  
  Mirza Ashraf, the pride of the ages,
  
  The sky of glory, grandeur, and generosity.
  
  May the star of his fortune be shining,
  
  As long as there exists heaven and earth, and the tablet and pen (of divine decrees).

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

2014.332

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 birds and flowers on a black ground. On the sides, gold scrollwork frames panels with small-scale European figures on horseback and seated in carriages in riverine landscapes. These are flanked by medallions with three-quarter length portraits of European men and women.

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), p. 141, cat. 126

Verification Level