A QAJAR LACQUERED PAPIER-MÂCHÉ PEN CASE (QALAMDAN) IN THE STYLE OF ABU TALIB
PROPERTY FROM AN IMPORTANT EUROPEAN PRIVATE COLLECTION
Qajar Iran, 19th century

With rounded ends and sliding tray, lacquered, polychrome-painted and heightened in gold, the top and sides finely worked in the style of Abu Talib Mudarris with typical gold lobed cartouches and arabesque-like medallions filled with 'engine turning' designs resembling grids of crisscrossing and diagonally striped gold bands over a dark green ground, gold fretwork bands around the edges, the sliding tray and the underside of the case painted in plain black, 22.5cm long.