A SAFAVID POLYCHROME LACQUER PAPIER MACHE QALAMDAN

BY HAJJI MUHAMMAD OR 'ALI ASHRAF, PERSIA, DATED AH 1117/1705-6 AD

細節

A SAFAVID POLYCHROME LACQUER PAPIER MACHE QALAMDAN
BY HAJJI MUHAMMAD OR 'ALI ASHRAF, PERSIA, DATED AH 1117/1705-6 AD
With rounded ends and sliding tray, the deep red top overlaying thin golden strips painted with very fine meandering flowering vine around a central cusped portrait oval flanked above and below with similar gul-o bulbul panels, inscription pendants above and below, the sides with similar ground painted with separate polyanthus, viola, carnation, scabius and other floral sprays, the dark brown glitter and with similar floral sprays, the gold underside with a simple bold meandering tendril issuing large flowerheads, the tray with decoupé paper cartouches with scrolling arabesques or meandering flowering vine painted to imitate shagreen, the interior with fitted brass inkwell cover with stamped maker's mark in the name of Hassan 'Ali, very slight restorations to extremities
9½in. (24cm.) long

拍品專文

The signature of 'Ali Ashraf on this penbox raises questions. All other known works by him are dated 30-40 years later than here. And the near pair to this penbox in the Khalili Collection, also with the same rare flattened wire strip base seen here, dated one year earlier, is signed by Hajji Muhammad, (Khalili, Nasser D., Robinson, B.W. and Stanley, Tim: Lacquer of the Islamic Lands, volume I, no.37, pp.67-69). This latter signature is confirmed as correct by Chahryar Adle (Ecriture de l'Union. Reflets du temps des troubles. Oevre picturale (1083-1124/1673-1712) de Haji Mohammad, Paris, 1980, pp.48-9). While the decorative composition of the present penbox is identical, the quality of the box itself, the painting and the underlying wire work is definitely superior. If this work is by 'Ali Ashraf, it is clearly the earliest recorded, and could help confirm his pupilage under Hajji Muhammad at this time. For a discussion of who was his master, see Khalili, Robinson and Stanley, op.cit., pp.72-4. An alternative is that it is indeed by Hajji Muhammad; the date and style fit perfectly. For some reason at a later date it has been ascribed to 'Ali Ashraf, with whose name this particular composition is identified. An indication of this is in the wording of the signature. It combines the normal formal word zibad which occurs in most signatures of 'Ali Ashraf with the colloquial form bad-az to form the incorrect compound zibad-az.