This attractive fragment comprises two border sections which have been abutted to form a rug. They would probably originally have formed avenues of trees and birds flanking a central watercourse, although in one garden carpet which survives in two fragments this motif is used as the main border around the outside (Spuhler, F.: Islamic Carpets and Textiles in the Keir Collection, London, 1978, no.56A, p. 113, ill.p.114, and in the Burrell Collection in Black, David: World Rugs and Carpets, London, 1985, ill.p.71). It can also be seen in a slightly later example in the Victoria and Albert Museum (Klose, C.: op.cit., pl.3, p.115)

In her discussion on the group, Christine Klose places this fragment among the earlier examples of the group, typified by the alternating trees, relatively pale colours, and the birds above, thus dating it to the first half of the eighteenth century. In his discussion of the garden carpets, Kurt Erdmann (Seven Hundred Years of Oriental carpets, London, 1970, pp.66-70) broadly follows the same divisions, although he dates the 'earlier' group as 'eighteenth century' while the 'later' is catalogued as 'second half eighteenth century'. Other carpets and fragments of the earlier sub-group are in the Metropolitan Museum of Art (Dilley, A.U. and Dimand, M.S.: Oriental Rugs and Carpets, New York, 1959, pl.V), formerly in the McLaren Collection (Klose, C.: op.cit., pl.1, p.113) and in a private German Collection (Volkmann, M.: Alte Orientteppiche aus deutscher Privatsammhungen, Munich, 1985, no.11, pp.36-37). This last fragment could be from the same carpet as the Keir and Burrell Collections.
There appear to be no other fragments published from the same carpet as the border section offered here, although the minor border on a fragment formerly in a Berlin private collection (Erdmann, Kurt: op.cit., pl.73, p.68) is very close.