A MUGHAL ANIMAL CARPET FRAGMENT

Details

A MUGHAL ANIMAL CARPET FRAGMENT
NORTH INDIA, EARLY 17TH CENTURY

The wine-red field with a variety of flowering trees together with animals, birds and animal combat groups, one side with a broad deep indigo border of flowering trees divided by running deer between inner light blue fleeting animal and floral spray and outer animal headed vine stripes, even wear, corroded black, ragged edges, small hole and split
Approximately 6ft.6in. x 3ft.11in. (198cm. x 119cm.)

Warp: white cotton, Z7S, depressed, slightly undulating
Weft: 3 shoots, red-brown cotton, Z3-4S, first and third slightly undulating, second more so
Pile: wool, Z3-4, asymmetrical open to the left, H3.2 x V3.5/cm.

Provenance

Acquired 9 August 1937 as a "Tierteppich Fragment"

Literature

Alte Teppiche des 16.-18.Jahrhunderts der Firma L.Bernheimer, Munich, 1959, pl.106.

Exhibited

Ausstellung Orient-Teppiche, Museum fr Kunst und Gewerbe, Hamburg, 1950, no.129, pp.103-104, pl.44.

Lot Essay

The deer in this border fragment are remarkably similar to those in a detail of a manuscript illustrated in 1606-7AD by the well known painter Mushfiq (Christie's: Islamic works of art and Indian miniatures, 18th October, London, 1994, lot 8). It is highly probable that the well known artists at the time inspired the carpet weavers, it is therefore possible that this fragment was made in the second quarter of the 17th century.

More from The Bernheimer Family Collection of Carpets

View All