IRAN, 18TH CENTURY

An extensive set of tools in the Tanavoli Collection includes a wide variety of implements, including those for a number of different trades - from barbers and jewellers to scribes and doctors. The fitted lacquered box in which they are housed has one missing implement, a half-moon knife used for leather-working. The space left in the box for it is remarkably similar in shape to our knife suggesting that ours fulfilled a similar function (James Allan and Brian Gilmour, Persian Steel. The Tanavoli Collection,Oxford, 2000, fig.55a, pp.383-84).