This carpet was one of three ordered by Tom E. Barr-Smith in February 1926 at the behest of the Adelaide Club (of which he was then Vice President) and presented by him as a gift to the Club in late October of that year.
The other two carpets were offered at Christie's London, British and Continental Decorative Arts, 16 November 1994, lots 63 and 64. (See footnotes to these lots for further details of the commission).
Although the manufacture of hand-knotted carpet was transferred from Morris & Co. to the Royal Wilton Carpet Factory in 1912, when it was no longer economically viable for Morris & Co. to maintain permanent weaving staff and looms, it is not clear how much further sub-contraction, if any, was then done by Wiltons themselves. In the case of the present carpet, the nature of both its construction and the materials used indicate that India was the most likely place of its manufacture, where there existed a long tradition of hand-knotted carpet production. Given the distant destination of the carpet, it would seem logical that a decision would have been made to have it woven in India rather than in England, thereby reducing the delivery time by at least two months.

We are grateful to Malcolm Haslam and David Black for their assistance in preparing this catalogue entry.