Pen Box with Flowers, Birds, and Butterfly

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 flowering plants and hazelnuts, with birds and flying insects on a black background. A gold arabesque is painted on a red ground on the base. On the top at left is an illegible signature.

Dimensions

4 × 3.8 × 22.7 cm (1 9/16 × 1 1/2 × 8 15/16 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.