Lot 23
A LARGE QAJAR LACQUERED WOOD QUR'AN BOX
PERSIA, DATED AH 1281/AD 1864-65
Auction: 09 December 2026 from 14:00 GMT
Description
of square form with lid, painted in polychrome and profusely decorated with large lozenge-shaped book designs around the sides, the edge of the inside of the box inscribed in nasta'liq with ‘It was completed on the order of the exalted deputy Mihr Banu Afshar. In his hand (?) ‘Ali Muhammad Muzahhib (illuminator) 1281 (1864/5)’ …
Dimensions
40cm × 40.5cm × 19.2 cm
Provenance
Private UK collection.
Footnote
Karimzadeh Tabrizi records two artists called ‘Ali Muhammad Muzahhib, whose surname means ‘illuminator’: one who worked during the reign of Fath ‘Ali Shah (r. 1797-1834), and the other recorded as working on the illumination and assemblage of a royal copy of the 1001 Nights in 1299 (1881-2) (Mohammad Ali Karimzadeh-Tabrizi, The Lives and Arts of Old Painters of Iran, vol. 1, 1984, p. 402). Ali Muhammad Muzahhib served as one of the illuminators responsible for the gilding, decorative margins, illuminated text frames, and headpieces within the manuscript. Given the exquisite decoration on the present box recalling book illuminations, along with the dating in the second half of the 19th century, it is plausible to assume that the artist is the same person recorded as having worked on the 1001 Nights.