Pen Box with Flowers and Birds

Artists

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 birds and insects in flowers that sprout from a ground line, against a black background. The base bears a gold arabesque on a red ground.

Dimensions

3.7 × 3.7 × 22.4 cm (1 7/16 × 1 7/16 × 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.