Creative Interventions

Another example of a Chinese porcelain pen case with a visibly restored lid made in Iran at a later date can be found in the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford. Here the nineteenth-century metalwork lid recalls earlier metal pen cases. Alongside other examples of objects restored through metal additions, this contextualizes the David Collection case as part of a pattern of intentional interventions through visible restoration by Persian craftsmen.​ Each of these objects made the journey from China to Persia and was materially changed by this, giving us access to the story of their histories.