POSSIBLY AMRITSAR, NORTH INDIA, LATE 19TH CENTURY

The design of this carpet, with rows of flowering trees, some alternating with cypress, is a direct copy of a well documented fragmentary North Indian, Kashmir or Lahore carpet of 'Tree' design, c.1650, that is now in the Frick Collection, New York (61.10.7; Daniel Walker, Flowers Underfoot: Indian Carpets of the Mughal Era, New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1997, exhibition catalogue, fig.98, p.101). Considering the proportions of the border, and the numerous fragments that survive in various collections, Charles Grant Ellis was of the opinion that the field of that carpet may originally have displayed up to eight trees in each row. (Walker, op.cit, p.102).