Bidspirit auction | Persia (Iran), Hamadan, late Qajar

Persia (Iran), Hamadan, late Qajar period: unused draft form (havaleh) of the trading house H. MOHAMED NARAGHI & FILS, HAMADAN (Haji Mohammad Naraghi and Sons), No. 3391, colour lithograph with the firm's calligraphic seal and a security underprint, 22.4 x 12.1 cm - Draft form of a Persian trading house, unused. At the head, in a scrolled title band in pink, pale green and brown, the name in French H. MOHAMED NARAGHI & FILS - HAMADAN, and above it in Persian script ”Haji Mohammad Naraghi and Sons, Hamadan”. At left the firm's calligraphic seal in an ornamented oval cartouche. The printed Persian text is the wording of a draft (havaleh) as used by the merchant houses of the period: ”On the date ... month ... year 13.. ... to the honourable ... please pay the sum of ... to the order of ... and charge it to the account of ...”, with blank fields for amount, place and names. Serial number 3391 at the upper right, a security underprint of repeated calligraphic ovals. The back is blank, with a watermark reading REVER / MADE. Origin of the firm: not Palestine but Persia, today's Iran. Hamadan is a city in western Iran on the trade road from Baghdad to Tehran, in the years 1900-1925 a centre of the carpet and hide trade. The family name Naraghi points to the town of Naragh near Kashan in central Iran. Haj Mohammad Naraghi, son of Haj Mohammad Reza Naraghi who bore the title Ra'is al-Tojjar (head of the merchants) of Hamadan, headed a trading house that issued its own drafts on fellow merchants, as this form shows. The Naraghi family house in Hamadan is a listed heritage house of the late Qajar period, and a hospital in the city carries the family name. The exact year of issue and the goods the firm traded in were not found in the sources checked; by its design and lettering the form dates from about 1900-1925. Complete and clean, colours fresh, left margin slightly uneven, exactly as photographed.