Where does the name Zərnigar come from?
The art of ornamenting with gold and liquid gold, and the most patient work of Ordubad's masters — the story behind the name of our limited chest.
“Zər” means gold, “nigar” means ornament, image. In Persian and Turkic culture, the word Zərnigar was used for manuscript pages decorated with liquid gold — the most precious copies in palace libraries. Gilding a single page this way could take weeks: first the paper was sized, then a thin sheet of gold leaf was laid on it, and finally the master drew the ornament with the tip of a needle.
The masters of Ordubad brought this art from the miniature to wood. Gilded ornament on chest lids and on the edges of caskets was a sign not of a home's wealth, but of its taste. No ornament was ever repeated: each master drew his own pattern and wrote his name on the inside of the lid, where no eye would see it.
It is no accident that we chose this name for the collection's limited chest. Only fifty copies of Zərnigar are made a year, each lid is ornamented by hand, and each copy is handed over with a numbered passport and the master's signature. That it is not on open sale continues the same tradition — a gilded page was never sold at the market, it was made to order.
Zərnigar