ATTRIBUTABLE TO THE IMAMI WORKSHOP, ISFAHAN OR TEHRAN, IRAN, LAST QUARTER 19TH CENTURY

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A PAIR OF QAJAR PAINTED AND GESSO APPLIED WOODEN DOORS
ATTRIBUTABLE TO THE IMAMI WORKSHOP, ISFAHAN OR TEHRAN, IRAN, LAST QUARTER 19TH CENTURY
Each door of rectangular form with inset twin central vertical panels flanked above and below with horizontal panels, the vertical panels each with a central polychrome part raised figural cartouche flanked by similar smaller cartouches and spandrels on a ground of gold-outlined figural scenes, similar large figural panels forming the upper and lower sections, floral moulded cross-panels, in a border of gold-outlined meandering flowering vine overlaid in places by further figural and inscription cartouches, slight loss of applied gesso details, re-lacquered
overall 74½ x 48in. (189.5 x 122cm.) (2)

Special notice

VAT rate of 5% is payable on hammer price plus buyer's premium.

Lot Essay

The inscriptions form a typical ghazal narrated by a lovelorn man. They have been translated: "There is no refuge for me in the world other than your threshold; there is no resting place for my head other than at this door. I will not turn my face from the path to the tavern quarter, since there is no other journey or path for me in this world. If fortune sets light to the harvest of my life, say, "Burn, for it is not worth a single straw to me". I am the slave of the headstrong narcissus-eye of that slender cypress who, drunk with conceit, looks at no-one".

An identical pair of moulded and painted lacquered wooden doors is in the Khalili Collection (Nasser D. Khalili, B.W. Robinson and Tim Stanley, Lacquer of the Islamic Lands, vol.2, London, 1997, no.320, pp.112 and 115-6).

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