The Safavid seventeenth-century tradition for luxury objects in painted lacquer was continued under the Persian Qajars. This technique, employing an undercoat of gesso and a lacquer varnish, produced richly decorated pieces of great charm. This mirror case (the reverse is illustrated) depicts a nightingale on a rosebush amid hyacinths, primroses, and other blossoms. A Persian sensibility is here integrated with an interest in European botanical studies.