Pen Box with Armenian Priests and Europeans

Artists

Description

Cover and sliding compartment with rounded ends. The top is decorated in horizontal format with a crowd dressed in European clothing paying homage to an Armenian priest with acolytes, a domed building with bell towers in the background, and Europeans riding on horseback and in carriages. The sides of the cover are painted with three-quarter length winged angels and additional figural scenes. The vignettes on the front and back reference the famous tarji`-band of Hatif of Isfahan, and cartouches carry minutely written inscriptions from that poem. The ends illustrate episodes from the story of Shaykh San`an and the Christian Maiden, from Farid al-Din `Attar’s Manṭiq al-ṭayr. The base features additional inscriptions and a gold arabesque painted on a black background. On the inside of the mouth of the cover can be seen the makers mark of Muhammad Javad (fl. 1857-after 1870). The sliding compartment is also decorated. Two recessed panels on the front and back of the compartment bear additional scenes of Shaykh San`an and the Christian Maiden.

Dimensions

3.7 × 4.1 × 24.7 cm (1 7/16 × 1 5/8 × 9 3/4 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.