Pen Box with Inscriptions, Portrait Medallions, Animal Combats, and Flowers; with Ink Holder

Artists

Description

Cover and sliding compartment with rounded ends. The top is decorated in horizontal format with cartouches containing Arabic and Persian inscriptions and floral sprays, and medallions containing bust portraits of an Indian and a European youth. On the sides, the floral motifs alternate with cartouches with animals in combat. The outer sides of the sliding compartment also bear inscription cartouches. The multiple inscriptions, written in naskh and riqa’ scripts, praise the high quality of calligraphy on the pen box as well as the merits of calligraphy and calligraphers in general.

Dimensions

5 × 5.4 × 26.7 cm (1 15/16 × 2 1/8 × 10 1/2 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.