SOAS Research Online

Abstract

This article reviews the display furniture used to present Iranian playing cards in the British Museum's Albukhary Foundation Gallery of the Islamic World. It examines the need for alternative approaches to Perso-Islamic material, as distinct from European exhibition methods, while addressing the challenges of engaging with Qajar-era objects that were originally meant to be held and played with but are now confined behind museum cases. The article highlights the materiality of the cards and the design of their display, emphasising the role these sensory dimensions play in audience engagement. A case study of these playing guards, that contrasts the original sensory context of their use with their ensuing display in a museum context, reveals the way museum cases involving a ‘separation of the senses’ that split vision and touch along a series of nested binaries.