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Lot Essay
The knot count measures approximately 7V x 8H per cm. sq.
Both the present silk Kashan carpet and the following lot are part of a larger group of predominantly silk Qajar carpets purchased in the 1960's by the renowned German dealer, Abdi Roubeni and which were later sold through these Rooms on 7 October 2010. At the time, Roubeni was told that they came from the collection of His Highness Bhupinder Singh, (1891-1938) Maharaja of Patiala. Bhupinder Singh became the Maharaja of Patiala in 1900 at the age of nine, after the death of his father. Most renowned for his extravagant tastes, he would be driven in a motorcade of twenty Rolls Royce cars and is famed for having commissioned the most opulent diamond necklace that Cartier ever created (Katherine Prior and John Adamson, Maharaja's Jewels, exhibition catalogue, Paris, 2000, pp.164-5). He was known for his construction of palaces and it is presumably for one or more of these that the present carpets were likely purchased. It is possible that these carpets were sold to the maharaja by Haji Aga Eliasoff. Eliasoff was Abdi Roubeni's uncle who had moved to India decades earlier and whose company had sold carpets to many of the maharajas including Patiala. Unfortunately no records survive on either side of this exchange so we cannot be certain.
The citrine-yellow ground of the present carpet is a rare colour to encounter for the field of a Kashan silk carpet and demonstrates the consistent high quality and unusual nature of many of the "maharaja" carpets in the Roubeni collection.
The pictorial cartouches in the border are a feature found on a number of Kashan carpets, in both wool and silk. After Cecil Edwards toured Iran in the 1940s to write his famous book he indicates this particular design trait was particularly found in carpets of the village of Natanz a little outside Kashan (A. Cecil Edwards, The Persian Carpet, London, 1953). Natanz is also famous for the architectural jewel of an Imamzadah which can be found there, that of 'Abd al-Samad, originally decorated with some of the best 14th century Kashan lustre tiles ever made (Sheila Blair, The Ilkhanid Shrine Complex at Natanz, Iran, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1986).
Both the present silk Kashan carpet and the following lot are part of a larger group of predominantly silk Qajar carpets purchased in the 1960's by the renowned German dealer, Abdi Roubeni and which were later sold through these Rooms on 7 October 2010. At the time, Roubeni was told that they came from the collection of His Highness Bhupinder Singh, (1891-1938) Maharaja of Patiala. Bhupinder Singh became the Maharaja of Patiala in 1900 at the age of nine, after the death of his father. Most renowned for his extravagant tastes, he would be driven in a motorcade of twenty Rolls Royce cars and is famed for having commissioned the most opulent diamond necklace that Cartier ever created (Katherine Prior and John Adamson, Maharaja's Jewels, exhibition catalogue, Paris, 2000, pp.164-5). He was known for his construction of palaces and it is presumably for one or more of these that the present carpets were likely purchased. It is possible that these carpets were sold to the maharaja by Haji Aga Eliasoff. Eliasoff was Abdi Roubeni's uncle who had moved to India decades earlier and whose company had sold carpets to many of the maharajas including Patiala. Unfortunately no records survive on either side of this exchange so we cannot be certain.
The citrine-yellow ground of the present carpet is a rare colour to encounter for the field of a Kashan silk carpet and demonstrates the consistent high quality and unusual nature of many of the "maharaja" carpets in the Roubeni collection.
The pictorial cartouches in the border are a feature found on a number of Kashan carpets, in both wool and silk. After Cecil Edwards toured Iran in the 1940s to write his famous book he indicates this particular design trait was particularly found in carpets of the village of Natanz a little outside Kashan (A. Cecil Edwards, The Persian Carpet, London, 1953). Natanz is also famous for the architectural jewel of an Imamzadah which can be found there, that of 'Abd al-Samad, originally decorated with some of the best 14th century Kashan lustre tiles ever made (Sheila Blair, The Ilkhanid Shrine Complex at Natanz, Iran, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1986).