The Nasser D. Khalili Collection contains the largest and most important holdings of Islamic lacquer in the world. The production of Islamic lacquerware, in which papier-mache and wooden penboxes, bookbindings, mirror cases, and other objects were decorated in a technique of painting and varnishing, flourished in Iran, India, and Turkey in the seventeenth to nineteenth centuries. The Collection covers every aspect of this geographical, historical, and typological range and contains examples of the work of virtually every known lacquer artist. Relatively little work on Islamic lacquer has been published, and, as well as illustrating all 450 objects in color, this two-part catalogue will provide a major new study of the subject by two leading authorities in the field, one of them being Dr Khalili himself. Together the two books will form one of the 26 volumes in a lavishly produced series which will introduce the entire Collection to a wider public.