Mirror Case with Lid (1800s): Art, History and Details

Mirror Case with Lid (1800s) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:

Love and war are the themes of the paintings on the inside and outside of this mirror case. The inside surface of the lid is painted with a royal couple seated, touching each other, within a walled garden. In front of them a female dancer performs and another pours a cup of wine. Military scenes are painted on the exterior sides; on the underside of the case enemies flee, heads roll, and a corpse lies before the victorious king and his armies.

Object facts

• Title: Mirror Case with Lid
• Date: 1800s
• Culture: Iran, Qajar period (1779-1925)
• Type: Lacquer
• Technique: Varnished lacquer and opaque watercolor over papier-mâché
• Dimensions: Overall: 24.4 x 16 cm (9 5/8 x 6 5/16 in.)
• Collection: Islamic Art
• Department: Islamic Art
• Accession number: 1932.13

Collection credit

Gift of the Estate of Mrs. Jacob Perkins

View the collection record

See the museum's photographs and full catalogue entry. Catalogue text is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art's open-access data, with HTML formatting removed. This object and its supplied image are designated CC0.