English 19C Sterling Silver Etched Dome London. The dome is decorated with an engraved acanthus border. The double hallmarked cast handle has a waterfall design and is nested in cast leaves. Hallmarked for London 1860, with makers mark Steven Smith and W.M. Nicholson. Weighs 24.1 oz and measures 7 inches high.

The tray is from the New York estate of Fakhri Nemazee (1923-2004), one of Iran's earliest female entrepreneurs. Mrs. Nemazee, a Washington resident from 1948 until 1980, was married to the late Mohammed Nemazee (1896-1972). Mr. Nemazee was a commercial attache during World War II and his influence extended to the palace of Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi. He served as a cabinet minister from 1953 to 1955; another family member was a senator. The Nemazees ran shipping, trading and manufacturing businesses in Iran, Hong Kong, India and Singapore. "They were the Rockefellers or Carnegies of Iran," says Ehsan Yarshater, director of the Center for Iranian Studies at Columbia University. The family was well known for its philantrhopy. In 1953 Mohammed opened the Nemazee Hospital in Shiraz, 570 miles south of Tehran, Yarshater says. The 250-bed facility was among the Middle East's most advanced at the time. . In 1955, the Shah of Iran and Queen Soraya dedicated and inaugurated, the state-of-the art facilities. By this time, Nemazee had donated $10 million (equivalent to $100 million dollars today) of his own money, all derived from his shipping business in Hong Kong, to construct and maintain the medical facility and water works.

Nemazee Hospital and surrounding facilities also indirectly laid the groundwork for the development of a full-fledged university system constructed on the American model. In 1960, Shah Mohamed Reza Pahlavi commissioned a study that selected Shiraz instead of Tehran as the site for an Iranian university; the primary reason was that the Nemazee medical center complex provided the best base on which to build. Shiraz University was thus created and became the most advanced, western style academic institute in the Middle East. Born in East Isfahan, Iran, Mrs. Nemazee came to the United States in 1948 and 10 years later founded Fakhr Iran Textiles, a textile manufacturing company. She served as its chief executive until 1964. In 1980, she moved to New York and then to Paris. She was active in the Iran Foundation, which works for the advancement of education and health care in Iran.