2014.341: Pen Box with Shams-i Tabrizi Casting Rumi's Book into the Water

Identification and Creation

Object Number

2014.341

People

Abu'l-Hasan Ghaffari Naqqash-Bashi Sani` al-Mulk

Title

Pen Box with Shams-i Tabrizi Casting Rumi's Book into the Water

Classification

Artists' Tools

Work Type

pen box

Date

c. 1861-1866

Places

Creation Place: Middle East, Iran

Period

Qajar period

Persistent Link

https://hvrd.art/o/351858

Physical Descriptions

Medium

Opaque watercolor, gold-colored pigments, copper alloy particles, and lacquer over brass layer on pasteboard

Dimensions

3.5 × 3.7 × 21.2 cm (1 3/8 × 1 7/16 × 8 3/8 in.)

Inscriptions and Marks

• inscription:
  Top
  
  
  
  
  زهی مُصوّرِ سحرآفرین صنیع‌الملک
  
  که صُنعِ کلکش صورت دهد معانی را
  
  بر این قلمدان بنگر که از بدایعِ کلک
  
  قلم کشیده سراپا نُقوشِ مانی را
  
  
  
  How admirable is the magic-creator painter Sani’ al-Mulk!
  
  The creations of his pen give form to meanings.
  
  Behold this pen box which with the novelties of the pen
  
  Has obliterated the entire paintings of Mani.
  
  
  
  Sides (within pendants worn by young dervishes)
  
  يا علي
  
  O, Ali! (Ali ibn Abi Talib)

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

2014.341

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 a central cartouche, with is flanked by birds amidst floating bouquets. The central image depicts a well-known episode when Shams Tabrizi casts Mawlana’s book into the water, as related in Haji Bektas Veli’s Maqalat (Conversations). The sides are covered with birds and floating blossoms interspersed with portrait busts of young and old dervishes. The base and compartment are painted with a minute gold arabesque on a red 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), pp. 78-79, ill.; p. 134, cat. 105

Exhibition History

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

Verification Level