THREE LACQUERED PAPIER-MÂCHÉ PEN CASES WITH DECOUPAGED PHOTOGRAPHS AND WESTERN CHROMOLITHOGRAPHS Late Qajar Iran, late 19th - early 20th century

THREE LACQUERED PAPIER-MÂCHÉ PEN CASES (QALAMDAN) WITH DECOUPAGED PHOTOGRAPHS AND WESTERN CHROMOLITHOGRAPHS Late Qajar Iran, late 19th - early 20th century Each with rounded ends and sliding trays, polychrome-painted, heightened in gold, and enhanced with decoupaged black and white photographic and printed inserts, most probably cut-out from European magazines, the top and sides of one featuring European hand-tinted and gilt photographs of people playing music in a garden, maidens with their attendants, and rural scenes, some photographs repeated but manipulated into outdoor scenes, the underside and inner sides of the sliding tray embellished in traditional style with an interlocking trellis of rosettes and saz leaves in gold against a dark brown ground, the tray containing a pair of narrow steel calligrapher's scissors, 23.5cm long; another similar, with cut-out chromolithographed inserts with Western soldiers, kids, and landscapes, the underside and inner sides of the sliding tray with fretwork and decorative grids in gold against a red ground, the tray containing a small calligrapher's soot measuring spoon, 22.3cm long; and the smallest pen case with decoupaged black and white photographs of the Qajar Shah, Nasir al-Din Shah, wearing a conical Astrakhan black fur hat with a bejewelled aigrette in the front, another portrait of an unidentified European lady, and gilt cartouches with Persian poetry in praise of calligraphy in nasta'liq script, one rounded end with the photograph of a young European boy, the other end with a European lady at her toilette in a state of undress, the top and sides with gilt black ground, the underside and interior tray with gilt motifs against a bright red ground, 15.5cm long. An almost identical qalamdan with cut-out black and white photographs of Nasir al-Din Shah and European ladies is part of M. A. Karimzadeh Tabrizi's personal collection (M. A. Karimzadeh Tabrizi, Qalamdan and Persian Lacquer Work, 2000, p. 368, first pen case on the lower left corner). This is indicative of the high degree of desirability and collectible potential of pen cases with Qajar 'royal memorabilia' subjects and features, even towards the end of the Qajar era and the following period.Click here to share: