A QAJAR GILT AND ENAMELLED SILVER AND LEATHER QALYAN BOTTLE
PROPERTY FROM AN IMPORTANT EUROPEAN PRIVATE COLLECTION
Iran, 19th century

Of typical pyriform shape, resting on a flat circular leather base, rising to a silver mount with a tapering neck ending in an everted circular mouth, the exterior finely decorated with gilt stippled appliqued decoration against an enamelled dark blue ground, the rim, middle of the neck and lower end of the silver mount with monochrome green enamel bands, the central decorative register consisting of small oval medallions filled with polychrome-painted floral bouquets interspersed amidst Western-looking vegetal festoons with rosettes, acanthus leaves, foliage and trellis, the top and the bottom of the silver mount further embellished with gilt and white-enamelled beaded bands filled with foliate motifs and red enamel roundels, the composition reminiscent of French enamelled artworks of the 18th and 19th centuries, 22.5cm high.

Bonhams London, 27 April 1994, lot 289.