SIGNED MUHAMMAD BAQIR, IRAN, DATED AH 1197/1782-83 AD

Muhammad Baqir was a pupil of 'Ali Ashraf whose activity is well-attested from the 1730s onwards, although some works are dated earlier. The lacquer works of Muhammad Baqir mostly employ compositions with flowers and birds, but he was an artist known to have been a master of many skills and his output was multi-faceted. As well as working in lacquer and enamel, he is also one of the artists responsible for working on the borders of the famous St. Petersburg Muraqqa (B.W. Robinson, "Qajar Painted Enamels", Paintings from Islamic Lands, Oxford, 1969, pl.122). His recorded works are dated between AH 1172/1758-59 AD and AH 1244/1828-29 AD. For further discussion on the artist, Nasser D. Khalili, B.W. Robinson, Tim Stanley, Lacquer of the Islamic Lands, Part I, London, 1996, p.114.

It is probable that the verses on this penbox are in praise of 'Ali Murad Khan, the sixth Zand ruler of Iran (r.1781-85). In addition to this important commission, Muhammad Baqir is known to have drawn a portrait of Karim Khan Zand (in the State Museum of Art of the Georgian Republic, Tbilisi, Inv.no.12), painted a lacquer binding for a copy of the Bustan of Sadi for Baba Khan (the future Fath ‘Ali Shah) and worked with two other famous painters at the court of Fath ‘Ali Shah – Mirza Baba and Sayyid Mirza. We can thus assume that he worked at the Zand and Qajar courts (Francesca von Habsburg et al., The St. Petersburg Muraqqa', Lugano, 1996, p.29).

For a floral study in this sale, attributed to Muhammad Baqir, please see lot 84.