PROBABLY KASHMIR, NORTH INDIA, EARLY 20TH CENTURY

The design of interlocking shaped tiles filled with flowering vases is a direct copy of a carpet fragment purchased by the Victoria and Albert Museum, London in 1930 (Vlm. 67-1930). Museum records describe that carpet as a fine Mughal example thought to have come from the Amber Palace near Jaipur which was built for the Raja Jai Singh I between 1628 and 1658 (for a further discussion on Mughal carpets see lot 50 and 150 in the present sale). Considered to be amongst one of the finest examples of Lahore weavings during the development of Mughal art, it was later illustrated in the exhibition catalogue by Daniel Walker, Flowers Under Foot, Indian Carpets of the Mughal Era, New York, 1997, fig.107, p.109. A larger carpet of very similar design but with a blue border sold in Sotheby's London, 25 November 2015, lot 168 and a younger example is published by E. Gans-Ruedin, Indian Carpets, West Germany, 1984, p.238-239.