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Lot Essay
By the beginning of the 19th century much of the Indian carpet industry had become almost obsolete but the inclusion of several Indian pile carpets in London’s Great Exhibition of 1851 sparked its revival. Private workshops sprang up across the country and by 1862 the British Imperial government had set up a number of jail workshops in the Punjab. There is a clear and continuous progression evident in the design and construction of the 19th century Indian carpets; an early example that anticipates the later ‘jail’ production sold in these Rooms, 17 October 1996, lot 401.
What unites this group is their predilection for the 16th and 17th century cloudband and palmette designs of the Safavid and Mughal traditions. Many early Indian carpets took their inspiration from Safavid weavings. In an effort to bolster the carpet industry in India, Mughal rulers employed the finest Persian craftsmen, who in turn incorporated Persian motifs into an Indian palette. The renaissance in Indian production in the 19th century was buoyed by the weavers' exposure to these designs through the carpets of the Maharaja of Jaipur and the collection in Bijapur, and later, the publication of lavish carpet reference books with hand-coloured plates (Ian Bennet, Jail Birds, London, 1987, no.5).
The dynamic cloudbands and large palmettes displayed here are reminiscent of a magnificent Indo-Isfahan carpet woven for Maharaja Raya Singh I (E. Gans Rudin, Indian Carpets, 1984, p.87). The beauty of this design, coupled with the rich wine-red field and the elegant tonal abrash of teal and mauve, present Indian 19th century weaving at its most opulent.
What unites this group is their predilection for the 16th and 17th century cloudband and palmette designs of the Safavid and Mughal traditions. Many early Indian carpets took their inspiration from Safavid weavings. In an effort to bolster the carpet industry in India, Mughal rulers employed the finest Persian craftsmen, who in turn incorporated Persian motifs into an Indian palette. The renaissance in Indian production in the 19th century was buoyed by the weavers' exposure to these designs through the carpets of the Maharaja of Jaipur and the collection in Bijapur, and later, the publication of lavish carpet reference books with hand-coloured plates (Ian Bennet, Jail Birds, London, 1987, no.5).
The dynamic cloudbands and large palmettes displayed here are reminiscent of a magnificent Indo-Isfahan carpet woven for Maharaja Raya Singh I (E. Gans Rudin, Indian Carpets, 1984, p.87). The beauty of this design, coupled with the rich wine-red field and the elegant tonal abrash of teal and mauve, present Indian 19th century weaving at its most opulent.
