Pen Box with Birds, Flowers, and Butterflies
18th-19th century
Description
The upper surface of this pen box (qalamdan) is divided into three lobed cartouches outlined in gold, their interstices filled with golden palmettes and flowers. A bird-and-flower composition uniting nightingale, rose, and blossoming branch dominates the center cartouche. The flanking compartments, one broadly mirroring the other save changes in palette, contain prunus blossoms, a tulip, and hovering butterflies that gather nectar from and pollinate the plants. The background of the pen box is a deep reddish brown flecked with particles of gold; it provides the ideal contrast for the bright colors used in the bird-and- flower designs. The coloristic effect of the palette—greens, white, blues, pinks, browns, and reds—has been unified by the layers of shellac varnish applied to the surface as a final stage. The sides of the pen box continue the subject matter of the upper face, similarly structured in three compositional groupings; the principal difference is that the birds directly confront the winged insects amid miniature floral thickets.
Dimensions
4.4 x 24.2 x 3.7 cm (1 3/4 x 9 1/2 x 1 7/16 in.)
Provenance
[Hadji Baba Rabbi House of Antiquities, Teheran, 1973], sold; to Stanford and Norma Jean Calderwood, Belmont, MA (1973-2002), gift; to Harvard Art Museums, 2002.
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