*A PORCELAIN WATER PIPE (QALYAN) BOTTLE AND STEM CUPPROPERTY FROM AN IMPORTANT EUROPEAN PRIVATE COLLECTIONPossibly France and Iran, late 19th centuryComprising a typical bell-shaped water pipe base, resting on a circular foot and rising to a tapering ringed neck, with a reinforced rim, the white porcelain body painted in light pink, gold and polychromes, the decoration consisting of two large oval roundels with the official portrait of Naser al-Din Shah, the Qajar King of Persia (r. 1848 - 1896), interspersed with bouquets of Western-inspired white clematis, 26.4cm high; and a similarly decorated stem cup to hold the brazier of the water pipe, the portrait roundels alternated with the depiction in blue of the Tour Eiffel, 15.5cm high.