TWO LACQUERED PAPIER-MÂCHÉ PEN CASES (QALAMDAN)
PROPERTY FROM A PRIVATE ENGLISH COLLECTOR
Qajar Iran, 19th century

Each with rounded ends and sliding tray, comprising a grisaille-painted pen case with fifteen portraits of Sufi acolytes and sheikhs, most of them wearing the typical felt hat and long-sleeved coat, depicted in the wilderness, each one with a different accessory / object and their names inscribed at the top of the roundel distinguishing them from one another, the internal tray and the underside with gold trellis, lotus and floral scrollwork on a black ground, 21.5cm long; and a polychrome-painted and gilt pen case depicting Bahram Gur in the Seven Palaces described in Nizami Ganjavi's poem Haft Peykar, each interior and princess of a different colour, with small oval cartouches inscribed with the name of Bahram, interspersed with cusped cartouches with Qajar youths and courtly ladies, the interior with its own inkwell (dawat), the internal tray and the underside with gold trellis and floral scrollwork on a red ground, 23.5cm.

Provenance: Acquired in Iran in the 1970s by the present vendor's father, a BP employee based in Tehran; brought to the UK in the same decade and in the family collection since.