SIGNED NAJAF 'ALI, IRAN, MID 19TH CENTURY

This pencase is very closely related to a further example signed ya Shah-i Najaf' and dated AH1259/1843-44 AD in a private collection which was exhibited at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston (Mary McWilliams and David J. Roxburgh, Traces of the Calligrapher: Islamic Calligraphy in Practice, c. 1600-1900, New Haven, 2007, fig. 44, p. 62). Another example with a very similar vertical composition of an Indian lady signed like our pencase and dated AH 1270/1853-54 AD is in the Khalili Collection (Nasser D. Khalili, B.W. Robinson and Tim Stanley, Lacquer of the Islamic Lands, Part Two, London, 1996, cat.226, pp.31-33).