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Identification and Creation

Object Number
2014.333
Title
Pen Box with Lovers, Flowers, and Birds
Classification
Artists' Tools
Work Type
pen box
Date
c. 1850-1875
Places
Creation Place: Middle East, Iran
Period
Qajar period
Persistent Link
https://hvrd.art/o/351847

Physical Descriptions

Medium
Opaque watercolor, gold-colored pigments, and lacquer on pasteboard
Dimensions
5.4 × 6.1 × 27.4 cm (2 1/8 × 2 3/8 × 10 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
2014.333
Division
Asian and Mediterranean Art
Contact
am_asianmediterranean@harvard.edu
Permissions

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Descriptions

Description
Cover and sliding compartment with square ends. The top is decorated in horizontal format with a central medallion containing an embracing couple; to the right and left, birds perch in flowering plants that sprout from the ground line, painted on a black background. The sides feature birds and flowering plants interspersed with oval medallions containing portrait busts of young men and women in Persian and European dress. On the base, a gold arabesque is painted on a black background.

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. 146, cat. 143

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