- Title
- Pen Box (Qalamdan)
- Date Made
- circa 1575-1625
- Period
- 16th century
- Medium
- Wood overlaid with mother-of-pearl in lac; Drawer: wood with red, gold, and black paint
- Dimensions
- 2 1/2 × 13 5/8 × 3 in. (6.35 × 34.61 × 7.62 cm)
- Accession Number
- M.73.5.340
- Collecting Area
- South and Southeast Asian Art
- Curatorial Notes
Many calligraphy tools were designed for portability and are indicative of the mobile nature of the craft, which did not require a special studio but did demand good light and a comfortable place to sit or stand. Though lightweight and easy to transport, writing implements and the objects that housed them were nonetheless often works of art in their own right. Such is the case with this handsome Mughal pen box, with an inside drawer to hold the pens. Made of wood, likely rosewood, it is decorated with small pieces of mother-of-pearl, adhered with lac or mastic, and arranged in a dense foliate arabesque design of Persian inspiration, reflecting the origins of the Mughal dynasty in the eastern Iranian world. Written in the elegant nasta‘liq script, Persian verses are inscribed within cartouches, presenting a religious supplication on the top and an exaltation of the art of calligraphy on the sides.
Luxury items such as this pen box, which exemplify the rich cultural interaction between Mughal and Persian traditions, were principally produced in the modern Indian state of Gujarat in western India and in the Sindh region of present-day Pakistan. Such distinctive goods were made primarily as export ware for the international maritime market with Portugal and the Ottoman Empire during the late sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.
2024
- Selected Bibliography
- Pal, Pratapaditya, ed. Islamic Art: The Nasli M. Heeramaneck Collection. Los Angeles: Museum Associates, 1973.
