A PAIR OF QAJAR LACQERED PANELLED CEDAR DOORS, each with a large central panel flanked by two smaller similar, each panel extremely finely painted in the Safavid seventeenth century style with a central figural cartouche or medallion, the central panel also with smaller medallions containing animal combat groups and portraits, on a ground of scrolling palmette and flowering vine, the moulding painted with plain coloured stripes, the green borders with a wide variety of floral sprays around genre and hunting scenes, outer red turtle-palmette border, the central post with arabesques and flowering vine, the reverse plain, probably Isfahan, late 19th century (negligible chipping) | Christie's

Lot 181

181

A PAIR OF QAJAR LACQERED PANELLED CEDAR DOORS, each with a large central panel flanked by two smaller similar, each panel extremely finely painted in the Safavid seventeenth century style with a central figural cartouche or medallion, the central panel also with smaller medallions containing animal combat groups and portraits, on a ground of scrolling palmette and flowering vine, the moulding painted with plain coloured stripes, the green borders with a wide variety of floral sprays around genre and hunting scenes, outer red turtle-palmette border, the central post with arabesques and flowering vine, the reverse plain, probably Isfahan, late 19th century (negligible chipping)

Details

A PAIR OF QAJAR LACQERED PANELLED CEDAR DOORS, each with a large central panel flanked by two smaller similar, each panel extremely finely painted in the Safavid seventeenth century style with a central figural cartouche or medallion, the central panel also with smaller medallions containing animal combat groups and portraits, on a ground of scrolling palmette and flowering vine, the moulding painted with plain coloured stripes, the green borders with a wide variety of floral sprays around genre and hunting scenes, outer red turtle-palmette border, the central post with arabesques and flowering vine, the reverse plain, probably Isfahan, late 19th century (negligible chipping)
88 x 51in. (224 x 130cm.) (2)

Provenance

H Khan Monif, New York, circa 1935

Literature

Harper's Bazaar, September 1939, as background for fashion shot

Lot Essay

This is an exceptionally fine example of late Qajar work in the Safavid style. While a number of these pairs of doors were made in this period, few of them have come out of Iran. The quality of painting here makes an attribution to Isma'il Xavier very probable

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