A LACQUERED PAPIER-MÂCHÉ PEN CASE (QALAMDAN) WITH EROTIC SCENES
PROPERTY FROM AN IMPORTANT PRIVATE EUROPEAN COLLECTOR
Qajar Iran, 19th century

With squared ends and a detached rectangular lid, lacquered, polychrome-painted and heightened in gold, the top painted with three horizontally arranged erotic scenes, the first and third cartouches presenting the same couple in reverse, the central cartouche with a different couple in front of an intimate banquet with food and drinks, all scenes set in a lavish Qajar interior, the interior of the lid painted with a romantic landscape view with bridges and fortified citadels, the sides painted with rural scenes inspired by the Christian iconography of the escape to Egypt, with ladies wearing headscarves outside tents and young shepherds attending the flocks, the underside with a green and gold-painted vine trellis with ripe grape bunches and a pair of birds in the centre against a red ground, 25.5cm long.