Enrica Medugno
Senior Sale Coordinator
Lot 87R
A Qajar lacquer penbox (qalamdan) presented to Sardar As'ad Persia, 19th/ 20th Century
23 May 2023, 11:00 BST
London, New Bond StreetSold for £3,200 inc. premium
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Oliver White
Head of Department
A Qajar lacquer penbox (qalamdan) presented to Sardar As'ad
Persia, 19th/ 20th Century
Persia, 19th/ 20th Century
with rounded ends and sliding tray, decorated in polychrome and gilt, to the top a woman holding a fan in a landscape, above an inscription filled cartouche, the sides with hunting scenes and roundels containing portraits, the base and sides of inner tray with foliate interlace, inside an enamelled brass inkwell with hinged lid and foliate designs, with cloth case
22 cm. long
22 cm. long
Footnotes
Inscriptions: ya rafi' al-darajat, 'O You whose ranks are exalted!' And taqdim-e huzur-e janab-e fakhamat nisab amir al-umara' al-'izam sardar as'ad kamgar dama iqbaluhu al-'ali, 'Presented to the presence of His Excellency of high dignity, the commander of great commanders, Sardar As'ad, the fortunate – may his high prosperity be everlasting.'
Sardar As'ad is likely to be Hajj 'Ali Quli Khan (d. Muharram 1336/October-November 1917), a famous chief of the Bakhtiyari tribe, particularly known as a revolutionary and one of the primary figures in the capture of Tehran in 1909 and the Constitutional Revolution. This identification of Sardar As'ad to 'Ali Quli Khan is possible due to the titles given in the inscription and also because the title of Esfandiyar Khan was Samsam al-Saltanah, which would have been given in the inscription. Hajj 'Ali Quli Khan was a son of Husayn Quli Khan Ilkhani of the Haft Lang Bakhtiyari tribe. He, together with his brother Esfandiyar Khan were imprisoned by Zill al-Sultan. After his release from prison, he joined Amin al-Sultan and after the assassination of Nasir al-Din Shah, he was put in charge of 100 Bakhtiyari cavalry with the rank of Brigadier General (sartip) and in charge of government cavalry. After Amin al-Sultan's dismissal, 'Ali Quli went to Europe and with the help of the British returned to Iran and founded the Constitutional movement in 1327 (1909-10). After the deposition of Muhammad 'Ali Shah, he was elected as the Interior Minister and then Minister of War. He is described as the best of Bakhtiyari chiefs and a cultured man, who encouraged the translation of travellers' accounts like Tavernier and the Shirley brothers as well the British documents on Iran into Persian. (M. Bamdad, Dictionary of National Biography of Iran, 1700-1900, vol. II, Tehran, 1966, pp. 448-50).
The decorative scheme featured on the present lot is derived from penboxes of the Safavid period, with this type of image becoming popular in the 19th Century probably due to Najaf 'Ali (N. D. Khalili, B. W. Robinson and T. Stanley, Lacquer of the Islamic Lands, Part Two, 1997, pp. 31-33, cat. 226 & 227).