TWO LACQUERED PAPIER-MÂCHÉ PEN CASES (QALAMDAN) WITH SCENES OF NUDES
PROPERTY FROM AN IMPORTANT EUROPEAN PRIVATE COLLECTION
Qajar Iran, late 19th century, one inscribed 'Amal-i Abd Al-Husain Sani' Humayun' and dated 1317 AH (1899 AD)

Each with rounded ends and sliding tray, lacquered, polychrome-painted and heightened in gold, the top and sides of both pen cases painted with horizontal compositions featuring Western-inspired scenes of female nudes, one pen case with a group of naked ladies in a romanticised green landscape with distant castles in the background, the latter with reclined ladies in typical Qajar interiors with their attendants, their poses inspired by renowned Western models like Titian's Venus of Urbino or Goya's Maya Desnuda, the sides of the sliding tray and the underside with scrolling lotus flower sprays and vine trellis in gold on black ground, the longest 23cm.