Pen Box with Flowers, Birds, and Portraits

Haydar 'Ali

1873-1874

Opaque and semi-opaque watercolor on prepared pasteboard under shellac varnish

Arthur M. Sackler Museum

On the dark brown upper surface of this pen case, European portrait roundels of a man and a woman are separated by three bird-and- flower vignettes. These unite different flora, with the rose predominating at the center, its branching stem inhabited by a solitary red-crested bird and insects fluttering around it. Haydar Ali’s signature and the date 1290 H. (1873-1874) appear in miniature white script in the spaces between the central bird-and- flower grouping and the flanking portraits. To add texture, the artist has used a technique combining wash and stippling in fine dots of pigment. The long sides of the pen case continue the bi