NORTH EAST PERSIA, CIRCA 1880

There is a sub group of 19th century Khorasan weavings, usually attributed to Doroksh, that are characterised by unusual pictorial patterns depicting people and animals, such as the present example. Our carpet relates closely to a carpet sold at Christie's New York, 15 December 2004, lot 134 but the design is reversed. Where our carpet has gun-toting soldiers surrounding the animals in the field, in the New York example the soldiers appear in serried ranks saluting, as if on parade, surrounded by a border of roaring lions, rabbits and birds. When the present lot was in The Indoujian sale, the catalogue note stated that the carpet was 'fabriqué spécialement pour Feth-Ali-Shah', which is an exciting attribution as not only would it make the group royal commissions but it would mean that they should be dated earlier than has previously been supposed. A related West Persian pictorial carpet illustrated in Donald N. Wilber, 'The Work of Saleh', Hali 51, fig.1 p.126 has an interesting Farsi inscription 'the work of Saleh, year 1251' (1835 A.D.), which would make the claim that they were made for Fath Ali Shah a possibility. Unfortunately no inscription has been found on any of the surviving carpets in this group.