TWO ARCHITECTURAL REVERSE GLASS PAINTINGS OF QAJAR PAVILIONS
PROPERTY FROM AN IMPORTANT EUROPEAN PRIVATE COLLECTION
Qajar Iran, late 19th - early 20th century

Opaque pigments, pencil, polychrome enamels, gold and white wash on glass, each glass roundel decorated with an architectural scene featuring large multi-arched pavilions with typical ogival iwans in front of bodies of water like a river or lake, in each painting several stylised figurines providing the scale and enhancing the grandeur of the architecture, the larger composition surrounded by lobed panels with bouquets of roses and blue daisies against a gold-sprinkled ground, painted in the Persian technique known as naqqashi-ye posht-e shishe (نقاشی پشت شیشه), or reverse glass painting, mounted, glazed and framed, 23.5cm x 23.5cm and 44cm x 44cm including the frames.