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Identification and Creation

Object Number
2014.338
Title
Pen Box with a Visit to a Sage
Classification
Artists' Tools
Work Type
pen box
Date
c. 1850-1900
Places
Creation Place: Middle East, Iran
Period
Qajar period
Persistent Link
https://hvrd.art/o/351832

Physical Descriptions

Medium
Opaque watercolor, gold-colored pigments, and lacquer on pasteboard
Dimensions
3.5 × 3.8 × 22.4 cm (1 3/8 × 1 1/2 × 8 13/16 in.)

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
2014.338
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 horizontal format with vignettes of figures and animals set in a continuous landscape. The scenes include white-bearded sages meeting with princely youths; a mare and foal with a sleeping attendant; elegantly dressed young men and women and a white-bearded figure. The sides and ends are composed in a similar manner, with vignettes that include a group of young women in European dress; two horsemen and hunters; and a group of young women in European dress reading letters with a putto and a white-bearded figure. On the base, a landscape scene with tiny figures is painted in gold on a red ground.

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. 131, cat. 96

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