Pen Box with European Women in Medallions

Artists

Description

Cover and sliding compartment with rounded ends. The top is decorated in vertical format with three cartouches of European women. In the center, a full-length woman stands in a pink floor-length dress; above and below are bust-length portraits. The sides are composed in a similar manner with an oblong cartouche in the center that features animals in a landscape, with small riverine landscapes to the left and right. On the base an arabesque is painted in gold on a black background. The artist Muhammad Baqir Samirumi sometimes added the number 303 to his signature. It has been suggested that this stands for the name “Baqir,” the letters of which have this numerical value. The signature "303 Samirumi" appears in the lower medallion cartouche, along with the date 1337 H. (1918-1919).

Dimensions

3.6 × 3.3 × 19.8 cm (1 7/16 × 1 5/16 × 7 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.