Persian Qajar-Style Gilded Metal Panel of Birds in Blossoms, Khatamkari Frame

Details

Description

A finely executed Persian decorative panel featuring a raised repoussé and chased scene of birds among blossoming branches, likely crafted … Read more A finely executed Persian decorative panel featuring a raised repoussé and chased scene of birds among blossoming branches, likely crafted from gilt copper or brass and housed in a traditional Khatamkari inlaid wooden frame. The central tableau presents an ornate bas-relief composition of three avian figures—possibly nightingales or bulbuls, symbolic of Persian poetry—perched and in flight amid dense sprays of stylized prunus blossoms and foliate branches. The naturalistic yet idealized rendering of plumage and floral detail recalls late-Qajar aesthetic preferences for lyrical courtly decoration and allegorical naturalism.

The repoussé surface is worked in fine low relief against a hand-hammered textured ground, with tooling that subtly enhances the dimensionality of feathers and petals. The scene is enclosed in a deep-set, rectilinear wooden frame extensively veneered with Khatamkari, the Persian art of micro-mosaic inlay using bone, brass, silver, and hardwood tesserae arranged in geometric rosettes and hexagonal motifs. This labor-intensive marquetry technique, popularized in Isfahan and Shiraz from the Safavid through Qajar periods, is executed here with characteristic precision and polychrome detail in green, black, and gold tones.

The iconography of birds in trees—especially in pairs or with blossoms—evokes classical Persian poetic metaphors of spiritual longing, love, and beauty, themes frequently represented in Qajar-period decorative arts. While unsigned, the composition, tooling, and construction methods suggest an origin in late Qajar or early Pahlavi Iran, circa 1880–1930. Such pieces were often made for both courtly interior decoration and for export, sometimes mounted as mirror surrounds, casket lids, or ceremonial wall plaques.



Measures:

16" h x 13.5" w. See less