Mirror Case

It is an octagon lacquered mirror case made of painted papier mâché under lacquered varnish with silvered glass and leather edging; and the exterior depicts the classic rose-and-nightingale referred as gul-o-bulbul in persian paintings where a nightingale is designed on a deep brown background ground bordered by fine gilt leaf-and-flower patterns. while its interior depicts eight figures are grouped together against a landscape. Popping the hinge of the mirror case reveals reveals a completely different world inside — a miniature almost dreamlike stage populated by eight figures pulled from different eras and different wardrobes, some in Persian dress and others in European costume all set adrift in a green, waterfall-laced landscape that owes more to European landscape painting than to Persian garden.Some view the bird and flower as infliuence of european style. It is also worth remembering that this wasn't meant as "fine art" in the gallery sense but rather as a keepsake or just a mirror case for practical purpsose or likely a gift commissioned which is part of why lacquer painters like Lutf 'Ali treated the mirror's cover as a small canvas for his micro-brushwork in which individual rose thorns, feather barbules and tiny golden scrollwork along the octagonal inner borders are rendered with miniature-painting precision.