TWO PEN CASE INKWELLS (DAWAT)
PROPERTY FROM AN IMPORTANT EUROPEAN PRIVATE COLLECTION
Qajar Iran and Ottoman Turkey, 19th century

Comprising an enamelled silver pen case inkwell with vegetal decoration surrounding a polychrome-painted enamel miniature portrait of a gentleman, possibly a high-class clerk or civil servant in the Qajar era (a farhang shahzadeh), the interior of the lid signed Ghulam Hossein Mina Karbashi and dated 132[0?] AH (1902), 1.5cm x 5cm; and a similar oval-shaped gilt inkwell with an automated opening mechanism below a fine rose head with foliage and thorns, possibly a commission from the West, 1.8cm x 5.5cm.