Just as the field design of the Tabriz medallion and cartouche carpet (lot 101) can be traced back to late Timurid miniatures, so too can many elements of both the border and the field of the present fragment be traced to early Safavid court painting from Tabriz (Lentz, Thomas W. and Lowry, Glenn D.: Timur and the Princely Vision, Los Angeles, 1989, fig.104, p.315, dated to circa 1526). While considerably stiffer drawn, it has all the same elements. The field elements are shared by a well known group of North West Persian medallion carpets, the best known of which is the Gulbenkian example (Pope, A.U.: A Survey of Persian Art, London, 1938, pl. 1122). The border however is rarer, appearing only in Philadelphia (Ellis, C.G.: Oriental Carpets, Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia, 1988, no.50, pp.174-177), one formerly in the Ballard Collection (Dilley, A.U. and Dimand, M.S.: Oriental Rugs and Carpets, Philadelphia and New York, 1939, pl.VI), and two unpublished rugs, one formerly in the collection of Adolf Loewe, the other in the collection of the Hispanic Society of America, (ref. H304 n.h.). The present fragment shares identical colouring and drawing with the Ballard medallion carpet (now in the Metropolitan Museum of Art) and it seems very probable that it comprises fragments from that carpet. Dimand, M.S. and Mailey, Jean (Oriental Carpets in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 1978, p.39), argue for a late 15th century date for the Ballard medallion carpet.