Mirror Case thumbnail 1
Mirror Case thumbnail 2
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Mirror Case

1860-1865 (made)
Artist/Maker
Unknown
Place of origin
Isfahan (made)

Mirror frame and cover. Painted with flowers and colours; inside the cover a group of flowers on red ground.

Object details

Categories
Personal Accessories
Household Objects
Object type
Mirror case
Parts
This object consists of 2 parts.

  • Mirror Frame
  • Mirror Cover
Materials and techniques
Painted papier-mâché
Papier Mache
Painting
Moulding
Brief description
Middle East, Furniture. Mirror case, signed by Reza Imami, Isfahan, Qajar Iran, 1860-1865
Physical description
Mirror frame and cover. Painted with flowers and colours; inside the cover a group of flowers on red ground.
Dimensions
  • Length: 27.3cm
  • Width: 17.5cm
Style
Qajar
Gallery label
(5 June 2000)
The interior of this mirror case has a fine botanical painting of irises and lilies on a brilliant scarlet ground, by Riza Imami. Even more interesting perhaps are the artist's doodles of figures of a soldier on the unfinished paper surface underneath where the mirror was originally placed.

MIRROR CASE AND COVER
Isfahan, 1866. Commissioned for the Paris Exposition of 1867.
Papier mache
922-1869
Object history
Purchased at the Paris Exhibition of 1867, and apparently directly commissioned for Qajar Iran's national pavilion. Reporting on the Museum's Iranian holdings to date in May 1873, Robert Murdoch Smith assessed the object as follows: "This very good specimen of Persian flower painting appears from the small inscription it bears to have been made to the order of His Excellency the Mueyyir il Mumalik Lord High Treasurer of Persia, who had charge of the collection and dispatch of objects for the Paris Exhibition of 1867." (V&A Archives)

Registered Files
Description of object: "Mirror Frame and Cover. Painted with flowers and colours; inside the cover a group of flowers on red ground. Modern Persian (Paris Exhibition 1867).
Date of receipt: December 20th, 1867
Production
Commissioned by Dust `Ali Khan, Mu`ayyir al-Mamalik (1820-1873), Qajar government minister.
Subject depicted
Flowers
Association
Paris Exhibition 1867
Bibliographic reference
Moya Carey, Persian Art. Collecting the Arts of Iran for the V&A, London, 2017, p.80.
Collection
Middle East Section
Accession number
922:1, 2-1869

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Record createdFebruary 15, 2001
Record URL
https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O55139/mirror-case-unknown/
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