Stamp seal

Object Details

• Provenance

  ?-About 1943-45

  Unknown dealer, Tehran, Iran, method of acquisition unknown [1]

  About 1943-45-1981

  Private collection, purchased from an antique dealer in Tehran between 1943-1945 [2]

  From 1981

  National Museum of Asian Art, Smithsonian Institution, gift of an anonymous donor [3]

  Notes:

  [1] The object is one of fifteen pieces that were part of a larger donation to the Freer Gallery of Art by an anonymous donor in 1981. In 1993, eighty-five of the one hundred seals were internally transferred to the museum’s Freer Gallery of Art collection, while the remaining fifteen seals stayed in the Study Collection until they were transferred in 2020.

  See object file for letter from the anonymous donor to the Freer Gallery of Art Director, dated November 24, 1980, indicating the intention to give the one hundred objects to the Freer. See also Freer Gallery of Art Acquisition Consideration Form: Gift, Transfer, or Bequest, for objects FSC-X-10.1-15 (seals), to be transferred from Freer Study Collection to the Freer Gallery of Art. The transfer was approved by the Secretary on February 3, 2020, copies of forms in object file. Additionally, see object file for a copy of Freer Gallery of Art vault record no. V110.80, indicating the museum received the objects on December 18, 1980. Of the whole collection the donor wrote, “All items were bought in 1943/45 from antique dealers in Tehran.”

  [2] See note 1.

  [3] See object file for Deed of Gift, signed by the donor on August 28, 1981, and by the Director of the Freer Gallery of Art on September 4, 1981. See also note 1. This object was acquired into the Freer Gallery of Art Study Collection and was transferred to the museum’s Freer Gallery of Art Collection.

  Research updated July 31, 2024

• Collection

  Freer Gallery of Art Collection

• Previous custodian or owner

  Anonymous

• Origin

  Iran

• Credit Line

  Anonymous gift

• Type

  Tool and Equipment

• Restrictions and Rights

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Keep Exploring

• Related Resources

  collections.si.edu

• Name

  Upton, Joseph M.

• Topic

  Art, Ancient Near Eastern Art, Sasanian period (ca. 224 - 651)

• Culture

  Iranians, Middle Easterners

• Object Type

  Tools and equipment