Drawing on paper, tinted and coloured with watercolour paints. Depicts a stall selling metal figures and utensils. Two tradesmen are conversing with a customer who stands facing them. On a shelf in the back of the shop is a pot for pouring liquids, a hookah base, a bird and a container. Mounted in a pair in a cardboard frame.
This painting is one of a series of watercolours which depict scenes that are well known in nineteenth century Persian painting and commercial photography. Judging by the fashions worn by the painting’s subjects they were probably painted between 1850 and 1875, quite possibly for sale to tourists. This example shows a stall holder, his assistant and a customer. The stall holders either make or sell metal figures and utensils. On a shelf in the back of the shop is a pot for pouring liquids, a hookah base, a bird and a container. Metal figures like those depicted in the stall can be found in the collections of several museums in the UK. The Horniman is no exception, our bird-shaped incense burner (27.2.48/75) could well have passed through a stall like the one illustrated here. Comparable bazaar scenes are illustrated in Henry Ballantine’s ‘Midnight Marches Through Persia’ (1879). The most applicable plate is ‘A Persian Bazar, Ispahan [sic]’ (p162).
