Collections

Collecting ceramics was well-established in Persia. One anecdote from the fifteenth century tells of a cat entering the chini-khānā (porcelain house) of the Timurid official Mir Ali Shi Niva’i and causing havoc. This practice continued into the Safavid period, when the lid to our pen box was made. Even objects in the most prestigious collections remained in use: Adam Olearius, secretary of the ambassadors sent to Persia by Frederik, Duke of Holstein in 1637, describes how vessels in the waqf (charitable endowment) of the Ardabil shrine were used for entertaining guests at feasts.Adam Olearius, The Voyages and Travels of the Ambassadors, trans. J Davies (London, 1669), p. 179. The pen case was likely stored alongside other ceramic objects within the family home of its owner and would have been used throughout its lifetime. This indicates the dual purpose of creating a new lid: to restore both the function of the object (a store for the tools of calligraphy) and its luxury status. The case must have been kept carefully and handed down as an heirloom, forging connections between the generations who owned and used it, as well as broader transcultural ones.