Ephemerality > Gardens and Flowers
As if thematizing the hazards of time, flowers constitute the principal motif for lacquer bindings throughout the early modern period. To be fair, figural subjects also existed: During the Safavid (1501-1722) and Zand (1751-94) periods, these resembled manuscript illustrations, while under the Qajars (1794-1925), particularly in the time of Nasir al-Din Shah (r. 1848-96), these instead appropriated imagery from contemporary prints and photographs. Yet such examples seem to represent a minority amongst decorative strategies, where floral and scrollwork motifs were more common.
Husayn Vaʻiz Kāshifī, Lights of Canopus
Text: Iran, 13 Rabi’ II 1231/13 March 1816, signed by Sadiq b. Muhammad Jaʻfar al-Isfahani; Binding: contemporaneous
Paint, gold, and varnish on papier-mâché boards
MS X892.8 B472
Qur'an
Text: Iran, 18th/19th century text
Binding: Iran, 19th century
Paint, gold, mica, and varnish on papier-mâché boards
MS Or. 162
Qur'an
Text: possibly Kashmir, ca. 18th century
Binding: likely contemporaneous
Paint, gold, and varnish on papier-mâché boards
MS Or. 188
Saʻdī, Collected Works (Kulliyāt)
Text: possibly Kashmir, ca. 1700–1850
Binding: likely contemporaneous
Paint, gold, and varnish on papier-mâché boards
MS Or. 226
Unlike figural compositions, which relate to other types of images, floral bindings can be difficult to date—variations of a motif could remain in use for over a century. Stylistically, they can appear either stylized or naturalistic, as if captured in minute detail. Yet these always remained in accordance with highly systematized arrangements.
These two black-ground and red-ground boards appear, initially, to be completely distinct and presumably derive from separate workshops. While they might have the apperance of detailed botanical studies, many details are in fact contrived and even shared. Both compositions are centered on a single rose-bush, occupying an S-curved stem (mirrored in orientation between the two books). This stem is occupied by flowers in various stages from bud to bloom, whose position and angle is again the same. For example, the full blossom at top, shown in "three-quarter" profile, is flanked by a pair flowers shown in half-profile: one upturned and partially opened; another, lower down on the opposite side, an outwardly turned blossom.
Such patterns, often subtle, can be observed when comparing numerous bindings. Sometimes, they result from workshop model-books or were even created by pouncing (i.e. stenciling), which allowed a design to be repeated on both front and back boards. The otherwise stereotyped quality of the images is tempered by mixing elements. The Qur'an, for example, surrounds the rose with yellow narcissi, creating a tangled-looking composition. This takes on a midly unreal quality, set against a transluscent, mica-flecked red background, which gives a sense of depth. Attractively turned out, the pattern multiplied (like flowers in a garden): Columbia's collection features half a dozen other examples in various sizes.
Other arrangements were also possible. These latter examples, likely from Kashmir (to which the Persian lacquer technique spread), show two possibilities. The Qur'an (MS Or. 188) features a symmetrical composition which follows the organizational logic of leather bindings: a central medallion with flanking "palmettes" along the central axis, framed by four corner-pieces. This predictable structure is again obscured and utterly transformed through botantical abundance, both the proliferation of buds and the use of a flower-within-a-flower conceit.
Another example (MS Or. 226) features an all-over garden motif, notable for its subtle use of shading and color gradations. The gold border, filled with a meander of blue and pink flowers, actually echoes the illumination used for intertitles and thumb-pieces throughout the manuscript's text. Although one usually speaks of Iranian manuscripts being collected in South Asia (and perhaps exercising an artistic "influence" there), this book was instead traded northward, where its design may have appealed to the taste of a Qajar collector.