Pen Box with Erotic Scenes in Medallions on Floral Ground | Harvard Art Museums

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Identification and Creation

Object Number: 2014.364
People: Muhammad `Ali, Persian
Title: Pen Box with Erotic Scenes in Medallions on Floral Ground
Classification: Artists' Tools
Work Type: pen box
Date: c. 1830-1850
Places: Creation Place: Middle East, Iran
Period: Qajar period
Persistent Link: https://hvrd.art/o/351844

Physical Descriptions

Medium

Opaque watercolor, gold-colored pigments, and lacquer over brass layers on pasteboard

Dimensions

5.1 × 5 × 28.3 cm (2 × 1 15/16 × 11 1/8 in.)

Inscriptions and Marks

inscription: رقم زد کمینه محمد علی في ۱۱۰۶ [ambiguous date]

Painted by the lowly Muhammad `Ali in 1708-09

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: 2014.364
Division: Asian and Mediterranean Art
Contact: am_asianmediterranean@harvard.edu
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Descriptions

Description: Cover and lid with rounded ends. The top is decorated in horizontal format, with five small lobed medallions containing erotic imagery superimposed on floating blossoms, the whole set against a gold background. The sides are nearly identical, each bearing a symmetrical pattern of clumps of red and purple flowers springing from the ground line, against a light brown background. The inner lid, also in horizontal format, features a leafy plant, rooted at the center with branches extending to the ends of the lid. On the base, floral and foliate motifs are painted on a red background.
The signature and date (painted on the inner lid), places the work in the mid-eighteenth century, but the figural imagery appears to be Qajar, to judge from the few elements of clothing.

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. 123, cat. 71

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