Lot 318: A PERSIAN LACQUERED DECORATIVE PANEL DEPICTING A COURTLY MAJLIS, 20TH CENTURY

This is a large Persian lacquered decorative panel, executed in the Qajar style, depicting a detailed courtly assembly or majlis. The composition is arranged in two horizontal registers against a dense gold-ground field. The upper register features a central royal figure, seated on a patterned carpet and attended by a suite of courtiers, guards, and servants. An idealised mountainous landscape is visible through an architectural archway behind the central figure. The lower register portrays a scene of courtly entertainment, including two central dancing figures flanked by musicians playing the daf and a stringed oud or lute. Seated figures around the periphery are depicted holding and drinking from small bowls. The central scene is framed by a series of ornate borders, the widest of which is decorated with dense polychrome foliate and floral scrolls on a gold ground. This border is punctuated by eight lobed cartouches: four featuring couples in pastoral landscapes and four depicting pairs of gazelles or deer. The reverse of the panel is finished in a vibrant, high-gloss orange-red lacquer with a thin, decorative gold-painted border of floral scrolls.

67 by 49cm