Antique Potteries Moved to Moqaddam Museum

One of the halls of Moqaddam Museum in Tehran was dedicated to a collection of antique potteries at a ceremony Tuesday coinciding with the 9th anniversary of the founding of the museum.

The collection includes 94 precious pieces dating back to the Bronze Age (3000 BC-1200 BC). Fourteen pieces were found in excavations from Giyan district in Nahavand county of Hamadan Province while the rest are from Deylaman district in Siahkal county, Gilan Province and Khurvin village in Savojbolagh county in Alborz Province.

The unique Moqaddam historic museum belonged to archaeologist and painter Mohsen Moqaddam (1900-1987), the youngest son of Ehtesab al-Molk, a courtier during the reign of Qajar king Naser al-Din Shah (1848-1896).

Moqaddam bequeathed his family house to the University of Tehran in 1972. He died in 1982. The museum opened to the public in August 2009 after  restoration works were completed.

The pottery collection also belongs to Moqaddam and were kept at Tehran University, Honaronline reported.

When Moqaddam inherited the house from his father, he and his wife adorned it with traditional crafts, stuccoes, mirror works, tiles, sea shells, ancient items, woodworks and paintings.

In the 1950s and 60s, Moqaddam House came to prominence after Professor Arthur Pope (1881-1969), an American art historian, wrote an article “Survey of Iranian Arts” on the unique house and the valuable historical objects in it.

Moqaddam was one of the first Iranian archaeologists who worked with prominent specialists in the field at several historical sites. He was the founder of Fine Art College and taught at Tehran University.

The house, now called Moqaddam Museum, was one of the luxurious houses of the Qajar period. One of the splendid features of the house is the use of golden tiles on some walls which were installed by Moqaddam himself.

There is a small room next to the basement entrance with all doors and walls decorated with valuable and semi-valuable gems and beautiful corals.

In his journals, Moqaddam mentioned how he collected most of the historical objects -- buying them either from vendors or house owners who wanted to sell their historical houses. Others were either being smuggled out or taken to other countries before Moqaddam bought them back.

Some other historical objects were given to him as gifts by foreign envoys and visiting dignitaries.