Small, everyday objects can offer complex stories of production. Lacquerware objects, like the present case, required painstaking attention to form miniscule details on a compact surface. Each work uses a base of papier-mâché or pasteboard, onto which the imagery is built up from layers of water-based paints, with a shiny top coat of lacquer (a composition of oil and resin). Contemporary accounts reveal two different red dyes that give lacquer its distinctive tint, though some works have also darkened with age. The painted surfaces of this lid to a mirror case offer glimpses into the diverse imagery of Iranian popular culture during the first half of the nineteenth century. On the front, is a European-inspired scene of a seated Virgin and Child before an Iranian interpretation of a neoclassical background. The inner cover, which is decorated with a domestic scene more typical of 19 th -century Qajar art, is set on a terrace wherein a youth offers to refill his lady’s wine glass as she sits upon a shaded chair. Beyond the terrace is a countryside landscape.

Although Persianate artists had produced lacquer works since the late fifteenth century, during the Qajar era (1789 to 1925) lacquer production surged in volume and range of quality, targeting a broad spectrum of consumers. Likewise, artists turned to a widening pool of imagery from local and foreign sources. In particular, artists drew from assorted media that came into Iran through trade and diplomacy. Professional contacts in these sectors, such as Armenian and European communities residing in Iran, aided in circulating foreign material in the form of prints, photographs, and other objects.

These sources likely aided in inspiring the scene found on the outer side of the mirror case. Borrowings from Christian imagery were common in Qajar art, more so than in previous centuries. In lacquer, the composition dubbed the “Virgin of the Chair” often takes place upon a terrace overlooking generic European architecture, as seen here. The design is associated with the multigenerational circle of Najaf artists. Formed by the master artist Aqa Najaf ‘Ali (d. ca. 1855), the group produced a prolific body of lacquer works over the first half of the nineteenth century.

Pounces (pin-pricked stencils) of scenes closely resembling this outer cover survive in an artists’ workshop album from the same century. To reproduce a design on an object, artists would rub charcoal onto its pin-pricked outline to transfer the scene onto the fresh surface below. Then, the artist would connect the charcoal dots with ink or paint, and fill in the outline as necessary. However, even with copying aides, designs were rarely precise duplicates. Artists often adjusted details or selectively copied elements from multiple compositions. Variations on the “Virgin of the Chair” appear on other rectangular mirror cases that likewise depict the kneeling old man, Virgin, and Christ Child in the same poses and setting. Yet these versions often add a few supporting figures, such as an attendant holding a bird. This character was a common part of circumcision ceremonies, which further conflated Christian and Muslim traditions in a single scene.