c. 1850-1875
Cover and sliding compartment with square ends. The top is decorated in horizontal format with a central medallion containing an embracing couple; to the right and left, birds perch in flowering plants that sprout from the ground line, painted on a black background. The sides feature birds and flowering plants interspersed with oval medallions containing portrait busts of young men and women in Persian and European dress. On the base, a gold arabesque is painted on a black background.
5.4 × 6.1 × 27.4 cm (2 1/8 × 2 3/8 × 10 13/16 in.)
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.
Ink on carved wood
19th centuryChineseCarved wooden block
15th-16th centuryItalianCarved and engraved wood; ten bordered columns of text per recto and per verso; twenty two characters per column. Text in Chinese characters.
18th-19th centuryKoreanChūban (medium-sized) minogami (mulberry bark paper) treated with persimmon juice and cut using the "tsukibori" (thrust-carving) technique, with "ito-ire" (silk-web) reinforcement
19th-20th centuryJapaneseMetal
20th centuryAmerican