Study of the Expansion and Diversity Fields in the Art of Gilding in the Qajar Period

Book decoration, from Persian miniature and gilding to bookbinding, has been one of the arts considered by artists during the Islamic period. Many authors and scholars are not interested to study the art of the Qajar period, especially gilding, and the context of its expansion and publication, stating that gilding in this period does not have special and significant features.  In the Qajar period, the importance and role of science and knowledge in the development of the country, the development of literacy and learning among different classes of society led to produce the books and newspapers with new techniques due to the development of Iran's relations with foreign countries, and people could achieve the number of books through lithography; however, the calligraphers and religious people of this period increased their efforts to design the patterns for lithographic prints in spite of having the gilding. Some of these works are in private collections, libraries and museums inside and outside the country; for example in Malek museum. Religious books, especially the glorious Qur'an, have always maintained their status and importance in all periods due to their sanctity, as well as recommended number of literary books, such as Saadi's generalities, Hafez's Divan, Shahnsmeh, 1001 Shab, etc. by their advocators and customers of manuscripts in the Qajar period. From the court to the rich men, scholars, and even tourists have sought to acquire or order old and new copies according to their literacy and financial ability. The prevalence of aristocracy, science education, collection management and cross-border communication are some of the reasons for requesting these books and manuscripts. The purpose of this research is investigating the areas of social development and diversity of gilding in the Qajar period. In this respect, this research is investigating the religious works of the Qajar period through studying the historical books, especially travelogues, guilds and historiographies. This research seeks to answer the following questions: 1- What are the impact and effects of the social context on the art of gilding of the Qajar period? 2-what are the backgrounds and prevalence of gilding? The research method of this study is descriptive and analytic from a social perspective and data collection of this research is type of library research and documents. In introducing the visual and structural features of this art of gilding in most of the researches, the related social factors were not considered in the prosperity and stagnation of this art in the Qajar period and it is necessary to pay attention to the social status of gilding and its impact on its spread. The research method is descriptive-analytical. First, the works were classified into several groups separately in terms of the available environment and context to develop the investigation of political, social, and cultural currents and events after examining the characteristics of gilding. There are more studies in the form of libraries, objective observation, examination of CDs and microfilms of manuscripts (image document) for considering the history and manuscripts. There are a number of manuscripts in domestic and foreign museums and private collections due to the large volume of Qajar books, to the extent that it is not possible to access them all. For this reason, the Malek National Library and Museum, Golestan Palace, the Library of the Islamic Consultative Assembly and the number of 100 manuscripts are the statistical population of this research which is selected as an unlikely sampling. The present research seeks to introduce the general characteristics of the art of gilding and its diversity, which have appeared in numerous and diverse works such as various books, lacquer and oil works and contracts, Haliyeh, ornaments, etc. in Qajar society. There are not any comprehensive articles or dissertations in this field. Most of the researches and studies in the field of art in the Qajar period have been done in the field of painting and architecture with brief references to gilding and their artists. Findings of this research show that the art of gilding did not stagnate during the Qajar period, and the king, elders, nobles and ordinary people were interested in having exquisite manuscripts. There is high production of manuscripts in three groups of religious, literary, scientific and cultural books, due to prevalence of literacy and increasing spirit of aristocracy, which often had significant artistic value and was also considered by many tourists, ambassadors and brokers. Gilders also had class, status and social value, and gilding in this period, in addition to decorating manuscripts and designing new works which can be seen in the lacquer and oil works, especially pen cases, indicate many examples due to the growth of literacy and learning, and the prevalence of luxury in Qajar society, and most of the literate people of society were interested to have such exquisite pen cases with them.