Beautiful hand-painted camel bone jewelry box with a miniature design of "Leyli and Majnun", a unique gift of Persian art.

Beautiful camel bone jewellery box measuring 15 x 8.5 x 7 cm, hand-crafted and painted with a very fine miniature design inspired by the tragic love story of “Leyli and Majnun”, which takes place in 7th century Arabia, often compared to that of Romeo and Juliet but with a difference of more than 1000 years between the two and which also enjoys great popularity among the Turks and throughout the Middle East. Although this popular Arabic tale was already known in Persia, it was the innovative poetic work of Nizami Ganjaví in the 12th century that popularised it in a spectacular way in the literary world and of which many versions and imitations have been made, being considered as the most famous romance of Persian culture.

Both the colourful figures in the central scene and the fabulous female portraits on the sides are worked with great precision and delicacy thanks to the use of cat hair brushes, taking the utmost care of the detail; the artist uses gold both on the frames and on the characters' clothing and accessories to give greater realism and a more luxurious appearance to the composition. In an idyllic setting in the middle of nature Majnun plays the "setar", a Persian plucked string instrument, while Leyli uses the "daf", a very old membranophone percussion instrument widespread in Persian musical culture dating back to the Sassanian Empire. An original gradient of truly beautiful tones has been applied to the body of the work and when we lift the lid we are surprised by three small compartments delicately decorated with floral designs, all covered with a varnish that protects and provides that unmistakable shine to this type of piece.

The tibia is usually used to make these works of art, which is treated in special workshops in a long and arduous process in which different chemical substances are applied to achieve a completely clean finish. The material is then cut to make the desired piece, sanded and after drawing the design with a pencil, it is painted with natural pigments. In the Persian miniature, the artist does not put so much emphasis on drawing human figures as on depicting luxurious clothing on the bodies of his characters, which gives a lot of scope to his creativity.

This magnificent work is the work of Master Chaichian, from Isfahan and one of the great miniaturists, disciple of the famous artist Mahmud Farshchian, who has played a decisive role in the history of Persian miniature, both for his innovative nature, fusing styles due to his training in Europe, and for his great contribution to the international expansion of this art, since his works have been exhibited in exhibitions and museums around the world. With his characteristic style, Chaichian decorates all kinds of boxes and frames with inlays, objects made with camel bone such as jewelry boxes or kohl containers, ostrich eggs, backgammon and chess boards or traditional wooden mirrors, among other things, with hunting scenes, literary and mythological characters, chovgan or tazhib.