Harvard Art Museums > 2014.324: Pen Box with Portrait Medallions on Floral Ground Artists' Tools Collections Search Exit Deep Zoom Mode Zoom Out Zoom In Reset Zoom Full Screen Add to Collection Order Image Copy Link Copy Citation Citation"Pen Box with Portrait Medallions on Floral Ground (Muhammad Isma`il) , 2014.324,” Harvard Art Museums collections online, Apr 18, 2024, https://hvrd.art/o/351820. Reuse via IIIF Toggle Deep Zoom Mode Download This object does not yet have a description. Identification and Creation Object Number 2014.324 People Muhammad Isma`il Title Pen Box with Portrait Medallions on Floral Ground Classification Artists' Tools Work Type pen box Date c. 1850 Places Creation Place: Middle East, Iran Period Qajar period Culture Persian Persistent Link https://hvrd.art/o/351820 Physical Descriptions Medium Opaque watercolor, gold-colored pigments, copper ribbons, and lacquer over brass layer on pasteboard Dimensions 4 × 3.9 × 23 cm (1 9/16 × 1 9/16 × 9 1/16 in.) Inscriptions and Marks inscription: هو آلله تعلی سبحنه مصوره محمد اسمعيل He! Praise to God, the Almighty. His painter is Muhammad Isma`il 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 2014.324 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 vertical format with three portrait medallions and two anchor pendants, surrounded by blossoms. The inscription is written in the anchor pendants. The portraits are of two woman (top and bottom) and one man (center). The sides are decorated with clumps of flowers growing from a ground line. The red background of the top and sides has thin stripes of a shiny copper under lacquer. 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. 29-31, fig. 6; pp. 70-71, ill.; p. 132, cat. 100 David Roxburgh and Mary McWilliams, ed., Technologies of the Image: Art in 19th-Century Iran, exh. cat., Harvard Art Museums (Cambridge, MA, 2017), pp. 35-36, figs. 17, 19; pp. 150-151, cat. 56 Exhibition History Technologies of the Image: Art in 19th-Century Iran, Harvard Art Museums, Cambridge, 08/26/2017 - 01/07/2018 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
