2014.345: Pen Box with Birds, Butterflies, and Flowers

Identification and Creation

Object Number

2014.345

People

Fathallah Shirazi

Title

Pen Box with Birds, Butterflies, and Flowers

Classification

Artists' Tools

Work Type

pen box

Date

1886-1887

Places

Creation Place: Middle East, Iran, Shiraz

Period

Qajar period

Persistent Link

https://hvrd.art/o/351831

Physical Descriptions

Medium

Opaque watercolor, gold-colored pigments, and lacquer over metallic layer on pasteboard

Dimensions

3.8 × 3.8 × 23 cm (1 1/2 × 1 1/2 × 9 1/16 in.)

Inscriptions and Marks

• inscription:
  السلطان ناصرالدین شاه خلد الله ملکه سلطانه
  
  رقم جان نثار فتح الله شیرازی ۱۳۰۴
  
  
  
  Al-Sultan Nasir al-Din Shah, May God perpetuate his kingly realm.
  
  Work of the life-scattering, Fathallah Shirazi, 1886-87
  
  

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

2014.345

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 central cartouche with concentric gold frames containing a songbird. An inscription on the top names the Qajar ruler Nasir al-Din Shah (r. 1848-96). The spaces to the left and right are richly decorated with birds, butterflies, and flowers. The sides are composed of cartouches filled with animal families, flowers, birds, and winged putti. On the base, a cartouche filled with rabbits is flanked by bouquets. The sliding compartment is decorated on the outer surfaces with lobed medallions cartouches containing pairs of birds and vignettes of men riding horses or camels.

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. 86-87, ill.; p. 148, cat. 148

Exhibition History

• 32Q: 3620 University Study Gallery, Harvard Art Museums, Cambridge, 08/17/2017 - 01/07/2018

Verification Level