Artistic Handcraft - Casket with mirror and toiletries for a gentleman
Attributable to master Mohammed Zamân.
Origin and time: Persia, dated 1193 (=1779)
Museum of Ethnology, Vienna
Inv. No. VO_97383
Since the 16th until the late 19th century, master craftsmen in Esfahan’s and Tehran’s bazaars manufactured lacquer works of all kinds for the Court of the Shah and for the culturally sophisticated intellectuals: miniature shelves, mirrored boxes, boxes with lids, tins, flasks, fan cases/holders, book covers, playing cards, cases for writing utensils. The illustrations selected on the casket representing the Madonna and Child and Mary Magdalene or the Holy Family, allude to the tight cultural relations between Persia and Europe in those days, and to the imminent influence of the Qajar dynasty on painting and handicraft until 1925.
