* A QAJAR LACQUERED PAPIER-MÂCHÉ PEN CASE (QALAMDAN)
PROPERTY FROM AN IMPORTANT PRIVATE EUROPEAN COLLECTOR
Iran, late 19th century

With rounded ends and sliding tray, lacquered, polychrome-painted and heightened in gold, the top and sides painted with a horizontal composition consisting of multiple cusped cartouches and arabesque medallions all filled with intricate and interlocking vegetal sprays and floral trellis in polychromes, the decoration possibly influenced by Kashmiri examples typically decorated with intricate vegetal scrollworks and geometric motifs, in the centre of the top an oval portrait medallion of a Qajar lady wearing a tall aigrette with a rose on her forehead, flanked by bloomed roses and floral decoration, the base and sides of the sliding tray with stylised gilt lotus and flower scrolls against a red ground, the interior of the tray with provincial stylised lotus and rose scrolls with leaves and birds against a gilt ground, the interior of the case marked with the letter Jim, 21.2cm long.