The signature of the painter and illuminator on the lacquer covers of the books in the Malek Library and National Museum

The Malek Library and National Museum has an invaluable collection of manuscripts and, for that reason, all sorts of coverings, in particular, exquisite glazed (rowghani) ones. Besides introducing lacquer covers bearing the signatures of their painters and illuminators (mozahheb) in the Malek collection, this article addresses the identification of artists and their works with respect to the information regarding the signatures, dates as well as the artistic features Our of 6675 manuscript books, 212 have lacquer coverings of which 13 manuscripts bear the signatures of 10 painters, illuminators and, perhaps, binders. To find answers to a number of questions raised, we employed a library-field-work approach, limiting ourselves to coverings with compressed cardboard (papier- marche), which are improved sort of lacquer covers.