Pen Box with Portrait Medallions on Floral Ground

Artists

Description

Cover and sliding compartment with rounded ends. The top is decorated in vertical format with three portrait medallions and two anchor pendants, surrounded by blossoms. The inscription is written in the anchor pendants. The portraits are of two woman (top and bottom) and one man (center). The sides are decorated with clumps of flowers growing from a ground line. The red background of the top and sides has thin stripes of a shiny copper under lacquer.

Dimensions

4 × 3.9 × 23 cm (1 9/16 × 1 9/16 × 9 1/16 in.)

Provenance

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.