1880-1900
Cover and sliding compartment with rounded ends. The top is decorated in vertical format. A central medallion contains a three-quarter length portrait of a European woman in a blue dress. Above and below, bouquets float on a bright red ground. The sides each bear an elongated cartouche with a wooded landscape with a lake. Scrollwork in bright gold ornaments all sides of the pen box. The pen box is likely a product of the Lukutin manufactory in Danilkovo.
3.5 × 3.7 × 22.7 cm (1 3/8 × 1 7/16 × 8 15/16 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.
One of a pair of chūban (medium-sized) sheets of minogami (mulberry bark paper) treated with persimmon juice and cut using the "tsukibori" (thrust-carving) technique
19th-20th centuryJapaneseInk on carved wood
19th centuryChineseChūban (medium-sized) minogami (mulberry bark paper) treated with persimmon juice and cut using the "ichimaizukibori" (chisel-carving) technique, with "ito-ire" (silk-web) reinforcement
19th-20th centuryJapaneseChūban (medium-sized) minogami (mulberry bark paper) treated with persimmon juice and cut using the "dōgubori" (punch-carving) and "tsukibori" (thrust-carving) techniques
19th-20th centuryJapaneseWood block in two sections
19th centuryAmericanChūban (medium-sized) minogami (mulberry bark paper) treated with persimmon juice and cut using the "dōgubori" (punch-carving) and "tsukibori" (thrust-carving) techniques
19th-20th centuryJapaneseDark green nephrite with black flects and gray veins (so-called spinach-green jade), the stone of Siberian origin, probably from the area around Lake Baikal
18th-19th centuryChineseOpaque watercolor, gold-colored pigments, platy hematite particles, and lacquer on pasteboard
19th centuryPersianLithographic crayon on limestone lithographic stone
19th centuryAustrianInk on carved wood
19th centuryChineseMetal with cloisonné enamel
19th-20th centuryInk on carved wood
19th centuryChinese