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Lot Essay
The approx. knot count is 7H x 9V per sq. cm.
This extraordinary silk rug appears to have no parallel in the published literature. Surviving in outstanding condition, it clearly draws on the idea of a manuscript illumination with the lines spreading out into the "margin". But the design in the centre is not so clearly just from a manuscript, showing clearly the close relationship between illumination and carpet design that has existed through the ages. Executed in a very unsual and consciously limited palette, this must have been a specific commission for a patron of unusually refined taste for the period.
This extraordinary silk rug appears to have no parallel in the published literature. Surviving in outstanding condition, it clearly draws on the idea of a manuscript illumination with the lines spreading out into the "margin". But the design in the centre is not so clearly just from a manuscript, showing clearly the close relationship between illumination and carpet design that has existed through the ages. Executed in a very unsual and consciously limited palette, this must have been a specific commission for a patron of unusually refined taste for the period.