Pen box with flowers and bird

Maker(s)
Artist: Muhammad Hadi (Iranian, active mid-18th century)
Historical period(s)
Safavid or Afsharid period, ca. 1730-40
Medium
Watercolor, gold-colored pigments, and lacquer on pasteboard
Dimensions
H x W x D: 5 Ɨ 5.3 Ɨ 26.2 cm (1 15/16 Ɨ 2 1/16 Ɨ 10 5/16 in)
Geography
Iran
Credit Line
Gift of A. Soudavar in memory of his mother Ezzat-Malek Soudavar
Collection
Arthur M. Sackler Collection
Accession Number
S2014.17.20
On View Location
Currently not on view
Classification(s)
Container, Lacquer
Type

Box

Keywords
Afsharid period ( 1736 - 1795 ), calligraphy, Ezzat-Malek Soudavar collection, Iran, Safavid period (1501 - 1722)
Provenance

From ca. 1960 to 2011
Ezzat-Malek Soudavar, Tehran, Iran and Geneva, Switzerland. [1]

From 2011 to 2014
Abolala Soudavar, Geneva, Switzerland, gift of his mother, Ezzat-Malek Soudavar. [2]

From 2014
Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, gift of Abolala Soudavar in 2014. [3]

Notes:

[1] According to Abolala Soudavar, his mother amassed most of her collection during the 1960s and 1970s. Around 1980, Ezzat-Malek Soudavar moved her collection for safekeeping to Geneva, Switzerland, in a bank safe deposit that she had. On March 24, 2011, Ezzat-Malek Soudavar formally gave the collection to her son, Abolala Soudavar. This information was provided by Abolala Soudavar in 2013. See letter from Abolala Soudavar dated Nov. 30, 2013, copy in object file, Collections Management Office. The collection remained in Geneva until its arrival at the Arthur M. Sackler Gallery in Washington DC

[2] See note 1.

[3] See Deed of Gift, original in object file, Collections Management Office.

Previous Owner(s) and Custodian(s)

Abolala Soudavar
Ezzat-Malek Soudavar Iranian, 1913-2014

Published References
  • Massumeh Farhad, Mary McWilliams, Simon Rettig. A Collector's Passion: Ezzat-Malek Soudavar and Persian Lacquer. Washington and Cambridge, Massachusetts. 51, 52-53, 116.
Collection Area(s)
Arts of the Islamic World
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