Pen Box with Persian Women in Medallions

Artists

Description

Cover and sliding compartment with rounded ends. The top is decorated in vertical format with three cartouches. In the center is a full-length portrait of an Iranian woman in a black jacket and floor-length skirt; above and below are bust-length female portraits. The sides are composed in a similar manner with an oblong cartouche in the center that features animals in a mountainous landscape; to the right and left are small riverine landscapes. 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.

Dimensions

3.5 × 3.2 × 19.9 cm (1 3/8 × 1 1/4 × 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.