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Identification and Creation

Object Number
2014.360
People
Muhammad Baqir Samirumi
Title
Pen Box with the Virgin and Child, and Parrots in Medallions
Classification
Artists' Tools
Work Type
pen box
Date
1905-1906
Places
Creation Place: Middle East, Iran, Isfahan
Period
Qajar period
Persistent Link
https://hvrd.art/o/351822

Physical Descriptions

Medium
Oil paint, gold-colored pigments, platy hematite particles, and lacquer on pasteboard
Dimensions
3.7 × 3.7 × 22.2 cm (1 7/16 × 1 7/16 × 8 3/4 in.)
Inscriptions and Marks
  • inscription: 303 Samīrumī 1323

    303 Samirumi, 1905-06

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
2014.360
Division
Asian and Mediterranean Art
Contact
am_asianmediterranean@harvard.edu
Permissions

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Descriptions

Description
Cover and sliding compartment with rounded ends. The top is decorated in vertical format with three cartouches surrounded by dense gold arabesque. The central cartouche contains a Virgin and Child; above and below are parrots. The sides are composed in a similar manner with an oblong cartouche in the center that features animals in a mountainous landscape; to the right and left are small riverine landscapes. On the base, an arabesque is painted in gold on a red background. The artist Samirumi occasionally adds the number 303 to his signature. It has been suggested that this stands for the name “Baqir,” the letters of which have this numerical value.

Publication History

  • Basil William Robinson, Qajar Lacquer, Muqarnas (1988), vol. VI, pp. 131-146, fig. 17
  • 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. 157, cat. 177

Exhibition History

  • 32Q: 3620 University Study Gallery, Harvard Art Museums, Cambridge, 08/17/2017 - 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