Valuables box

Probably Khorasan, Iran, Qajar period, late 18th–early 19th century

Hammered copper, tin-plated. The entire box is decorated with engraved geometric, foliate, and calligraphic ornamentation with animal and human figurative motifs.

H: 36.8 cm / Diameter: 27 cm

UMP 4763

Purchased from Heinrich Kautsch in Paris in 1901.

In a letter sent from Paris on 28 February 1901 and addressed to Josef Škorpil, Heinrich Kautsch wrote that the vessel dated to before 1702 “in Arabic letters”. The box is in fact dated in a small cartouche on the neck, but barely legible year corresponds to the late eighteenth or perhaps the early nineteenth century. Because the hasp could be padlocked, the box was likely used to store valuables. However, the shape of the bowl corresponds to the globular-bodied bowls that appeared in Iran during the earlier Safavid period (1501–1736).