Shawq-i Majmū'ah'dārī: Persian 1403

Over her lifetime, Ezzat-Malek Soudavar (1913–2014) assembled an exemplary collection of Persian art, including several hundred outstanding examples of lacquerware. Most of the intricately designed book covers, mirror cases, and pen cases, published here for the first time, date from the Qajar era (1785–1925). As a respected collector of Persian art, Mrs. Soudavar appreciated these lacquer works for both their artistic quality and historical value. As a connoisseur of calligraphy and well-versed in the art of penmanship, she cherished the pen cases and boxes for their association with her skill and enjoyment of the art of writing. Abolala Soudavar generously offered his mother’s collection of Persian lacquerware as a gift to the Harvard Art Museums in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and to the Smithsonian’s Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery in Washington, D.C. The catalog opens with an overview of Mrs.Soudavar’s remarkable life in Iran and her interest in the arts. Other essays address the history and work of major lacquer artists of the Qajar era as well as the materials and techniques of Persian lacquerwork. Twenty highlights from the collection and a fully illustrated checklist complete this introduction to one of the world’s foremost collections of Persian lacquer.