.jpg?w=1)
Lot Essay
There is a design feature found on this rug and a few others from Lahore at the same period, which take the basic Persian "in and out" palmette design, but make the focus down the centre of the field to be a row of palmettes on their sides. The best known example is the white ground carpet in the Islamic Art Museum, Berlin (Walker, Daniel: Flowers Underfoot, New York, 1997, pp.48-9). The beautiful blue ground example in a private collection does the same (Walker, op.cit., pp.52-3). These two magnificent examples are considerably larger and contain animals in the field, and are assigned a slightly earlier date then the wholly floral examples such as the present rug.
The border here is found in a number of other Mughal carpets of the same period. A carpet now in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, and one in the Gulbenkian Foundation, Lisbon both have very well-worked examples (Walker, op.cit.. pp.60-63). It seems that the earlier examples, like the present rug and the Persian originals, tend to have small cloudband-motifs filling the gaps between the cartouches, while those of a slightly later date replace these with small floral motifs (Walker, op.cit. fig.64, p.70).
The popularity of the present design is attested by the weaving of a very similar rug in the middle of the seventeenth century in the Deccan (Walker, op.cit, pp.144-5). Almost identical to the present rug, that example, which is now at Boughton House, Northamptonshire, does not quite have the delicacy of drawing or the associated fineness of weave seen here.
The border here is found in a number of other Mughal carpets of the same period. A carpet now in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, and one in the Gulbenkian Foundation, Lisbon both have very well-worked examples (Walker, op.cit.. pp.60-63). It seems that the earlier examples, like the present rug and the Persian originals, tend to have small cloudband-motifs filling the gaps between the cartouches, while those of a slightly later date replace these with small floral motifs (Walker, op.cit. fig.64, p.70).
The popularity of the present design is attested by the weaving of a very similar rug in the middle of the seventeenth century in the Deccan (Walker, op.cit, pp.144-5). Almost identical to the present rug, that example, which is now at Boughton House, Northamptonshire, does not quite have the delicacy of drawing or the associated fineness of weave seen here.