An investigation of technical and artificial features of wooden spoons in the Safavid and Qajar periods

Wooden spoons are among the works of art that are known as decorative and functional objects in the Safavid and Qajar periods. Identifying and examining the features used in the spoons of each period indicates the repetition and continuity of these features in the decorations, composition and general structure of these spoons. Since these spoons have similar artistic and technical characteristics and were made in a close period of time, the main question of the present study is: What are the commonalities and technical and artistic differences between Safavid and Qajar wooden spoons? And the sub-question is: What is more emphasized in terms of artistic features in the old wooden spoons and what are the most common and widely used technical and artistic features in decorations? The purpose of this investigation is to identify and analyze the artistic and technical features of these spoons based on their description and adaptation to identify their common and different aspects and thus, determine the most common and most widely used technical and artistic features in them by examining the amount of commonalities. The research method used is descriptive-comparative adopting a qualitative approach. Data collection was done using written documents. Statistical samples of the research are 17 images belonging to the Safavid and Qajar periods that were purposefully selected and studied. The results of the research indicated that the general shape of the spoons, has followed a completely similar pattern and has common details. Existence of designs such as: Geometric, Islamic, multifeathered flowers, and animal motifs in each period shows the common influence of these arts from similar patterns. The composition of the spoon components includes openings, handles and decorations that are made in one piece and several pieces. The decorations include various designs with a structure of 1/1 and 1/2, by transfer method. The spoons are often made of one piece of pear wood with an inlaid and lattice technique. Using the same pattern of openings and handles, the same artists, geographical area, type of wood available and usable for cutting spoons and limited design and construction space to use more diverse designs are common features used in making wooden spoons.