Persian Cultural History: Five Engraved Scenes of Marriage, Travel, Music, Feasting, and Warfare, 1851

Iran Qajar Print

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Winkles, Henry. Scenes of Persian Life, 1851. Original engraving depicting marriage ceremonies, women's travel, musical performance, communal dining, armed combat, and corporal punishment in nineteenth-century Persia under the Qajar dynasty (1789–1925). Published for European and American audiences, the illustration records contemporary Western depictions of Persian customs, clothing, social practices, and judicial punishment. Its combination of domestic ceremonies, public entertainment, and scenes of violence provides a detailed example of how Persian society was illustrated in nineteenth-century ethnographic publications.

Winkles, Henry (engraver). Scenes of Persian Life. New York and Germany, 1851. Original engraved plate measuring 11.75" x 9.5", with an image measuring 10" x 8". Five principal panels contain scenes rendered with finely detailed linework and strong contrasts of light and shadow. The first portrays a veiled bride riding horseback to meet her prospective husband, accompanied by members of a wedding procession. The second shows a Persian woman traveling in an enclosed litter supported by two animals. The third depicts musicians performing with wind and percussion instruments in a courtyard. The fourth portrays six men seated around a meal on a decorative carpet. The final panel combines two scenes: mounted warriors in confrontation, one aiming a rifle toward an opponent holding a raised spear, and the administration of the bastinado, a form of corporal punishment involving blows to the soles of the feet.
The engraving was published during the reign of Naser al-Din Shah Qajar (1848–1896), when illustrated encyclopedias and ethnographic publications circulated descriptions of Persian society among Western readers. The scenes distinguish ceremonial practices and domestic customs from military conflict and judicial punishment, preserving the subjects selected by nineteenth-century publishers to characterize Persian life. The original engraving remains in very good condition. An illustrative record of Qajar-era Persia as presented to European and American audiences in 1851.

Item #14408

Price: $250.00