Lot Essay
The rug offered here is part of a group of carpets woven in and around the town of Arriaolos in south central Portugal in the 17th and 18th centuries. Two comparable Arriaolos carpets are in museums in Portugal, one in the Casa-Museu de Jose Relvas with an identical border and another with similar field treatment in the Queluz National Palace (see de Oliveira, F. B., Historia e Tecnica dos Tapetes de Arraiolos, Lisbon, 1991, p. 189 and p. 237).