A Qajar lacquer mirror case, decorated with scenes from Jami's Yusuf va Zulaykha, Nizami's Khusraw va Shirin, and a third depicting the story of Shaykh San'an and the Christian maiden Persia, mid-19th Century


rectangular, with hinged lid and clasp, the case enclosing a cosmetics drawer, depicting three painted scenes with some gilt, one on each side of the lid, one on the reverse of the case, mirror to interior, floral gilt borders and edges, sliding drawer extending from lower edge containing compartments for scissors and cosmetics containers 23.2 x 16 cm.
|The scenes depicted, an unusual combination of episodes, are as follows:Maidens fainting or accidentally cutting their fingers instead of the oranges when Yusuf appears in Zulaykha's chambers, from Jami's Yusuf va Zulaykha (front of lid).Shapur (the young man on the lower left, approaching Shirin) and Khusraw (the king on the horse) seeing Shirin bathing, from Nizami's Khusraw va Shirin (inside cover of lid).Shaykh San'an and the Christian girl, from a tale in Farid al-Din 'Attar's Manitiq al-Tayr (back of case).For a late 18th Century depiction of the first scene on an album cover in the Nasser D. Khalili Collection, in which the main figures are shown in a strikingly similar way, see N. D. Khalili, B. W. Robinson, T. Stanley, Lacquer of the Islamic Lands: Part One, London 1996, pp. 105-107, nos. 70 & 71, illus. p. 107.The third scene, on the back of the case, appears on a painted casket, again in the Khalili Collection, dating to the 1770s-80s. The composition of the figures, and to a large extent their faces and attitudes, is strikingly similar; the building in the background on both the casket and our mirror case is thought to have been inspired by the Armenian cathedral in New Julfa in Isfahan (op. cit., pp. 132-133, no. 95).