Artists' Tools19th century

Pen Box with Flowers and Birds

c. 1850-1900

Description

Cover and sliding compartment with rounded ends. The top is decorated in horizontal format. The top and sides are decorated with a continuous frieze of flowering plants with birds and flying insects on a gold background. On the base, a gold arabesque is loosely painted on a red background.

Classification

Artists' Tools

Medium

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

Period

Qajar period

Century

19th century

Division

Asian and Mediterranean Art

Department

Department of Islamic & Later Indian Art

Dimensions

3.8 × 3.9 × 22.4 cm (1 1/2 × 1 9/16 × 8 13/16 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.

Related Artworks

Artists' Tools

Carving tools for woodblock printing

Unknown Artist, 19th–20th century

Metal carving tools, wood handles

19th-20th centuryJapanese

Artists' Tools

Pen Box with Riverscape, Female Portraits, and Lions in Medallions

Unknown Artist, c. 1880-1910

Opaque watercolor, gold-colored pigments, and lacquer on pasteboard

19th-20th century

Artists' Tools

Pen Box with European Woman and Eagles in Medallions

`Abbas Shirazi, 1878-1879

Opaque watercolor, gold-colored pigments, and lacquer on pasteboard

19th centuryPersian

Artists' Tools

Woodblock for replicating Painting Manual by Noted Shanghai Artists (Haishang mingren huagao)

Unknown Artist, c. 1885

Ink on carved wood

19th centuryChinese

Artists' Tools

Woodblock for replicating Painting Manual by Noted Shanghai Artists (Haishang mingren huagao)

Unknown Artist, c. 1885

Ink and color on carved wood

19th centuryChinese

Artists' Tools

Scissors

Unknown Artist, 19th century

Steel with openwork

19th century

Artists' Tools

Pen Box with European Woman in Medallion and Floral Sprays

Unknown Artist, 1880-1900

Oil paint, gold-colored pigments, and lacquer on pasteboard

19th century

Artists' Tools

Katagami Textile Stencil with Floral Vine Design

Unknown Artist, Late Edo-Meiji period, 19th-early 20th century

Chūban (medium-sized) minogami (mulberry bark paper) treated with persimmon juice and cut using the "dōgubori" (punch-carving) and "tsukibori" (thrust-carving) techniques; with ink

19th-20th centuryJapanese

Artists' Tools

Katagami Textile Stencil with Stylized Floral Grid Design

Unknown Artist, Late Edo-Meiji period, 19th-early 20th century

Chūban (medium-sized) minogami (mulberry bark paper) treated with persimmon juice and cut using the "kiribori" (drill-carving) technique

19th-20th centuryJapanese

Artists' Tools

Printing Plate: Nude with Hands Behind her Head (vertical)

Armand Séguin, c. 1894

Etched zinc printing plate

19th centuryFrench

Artists' Tools

Katagami Textile Stencil with Octagonal Floral Grid Design

Unknown Artist, Late Edo-Meiji period, 19th-early 20th century

Chūban (medium-sized) minogami (mulberry bark paper) treated with persimmon juice and cut using the "kiribori" (drill-carving) and "tsukibori" (thrust-carving) techniques

19th-20th centuryJapanese

Artists' Tools

Water Dropper with Two Spouts, Each in the Form of a Crouching Frog, and with Plum and Rock Decor

Unknown Artist, late 18th-early 19th century

Blue-and-white ware: porcelain with appliqué molded spouts and with decoration painted in underglaze cobalt blue. From the kilns at Punwŏn-ri, Kwangju-gun, Kyŏnggi province.

18th-19th centuryKorean