Treasures of Persian Art After Islam: The Mahboubian Collection

TREASURES OF PERSIAN ART AFTER ISLAM: THE MAHBOUBIAN COLLECTION, Mehdi Mahboubian, illustrated, softcover,1970. BOOK CONDITION: Good. The text block and B/W photos are in near fine condition with no marks, dog-ears, or tears. There is no bookplate or signature of a prior owner. Not a remainder or former library book. The wraps are in fair condition (thin spot on front cover where a bookstore label was, spot on back, edge wear, some corner curling). 9 x 11, unpaginated but over 100 easily, 22 ounces XX On view for the first time in the University Art Museum of the University of Texas at Austin on the occasion of the birthday of His Imperial Majesty, Mohammad Reza Rahlavi Aryameh, Shahanshah of Iran (the one overthrown by the Khomeini Islamic Revolution of 1979). XX [From Mehdi Mahboubian's preface] It is to my great sorrow and regret that the man who was responsible for the formation of this collection through his precious teaching and guidance, based on almost three-quarters of a century of experience, is not among us to see the present collection, probably one of the largest and most complete of its type. Benyamin Mahboubian, an unpretentious man of great integrity and wide knowledge in his field, passed away on September 23, 1969 at the age of one hundred years and one day, having conducted over one hundred excavations in his lifetime. He was responsible for practically all early excavations of Islamic sites, such as Bezineh Gerd, Farahan, Soltanabad, Saveh, Aveh, Ray, Yaskand, etc. Here in this collection we can see objects he found probably before any of us was born. Great credit should be given also to my brother, Houshang Mahboubian, whose experience and cooperation have been of the greatest value. XX The collection consists of almost 2500 objects under 1552 listings. The carpet-collection and the seal collection were not in hand at the time of cataloguing, so they are not included. In this collection much attention has been paid to the art of the post-Safavid period, the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. In our opinion the art of this time has been undervalued and consequently neglected in the past. Now the time has come to reevaluate it. Several items, such as lithographs, of very high quality but quite unknown to the world, are presented for the first time. Regardless of the great respect that the Persian has always had for calligraphy and calligraphers, and the splendid contribution of calligraphy to post-Islamic art, no attempt has been made by scholars to introduce this aspect of art to the world. Here for the first time a complete collection of calligraphy appears in this exhibit.…