CENTRAL PERSIA, 17TH CENTURY

Of "red ground in and out palmette" design, this rug retains its strong original colours. The juxtaposition of the sea-green border and the rust-red palmettes is particularly harmonious. Their popularity was enormous both at the time of manufacture and at the end of the nineteenth and beginning of the twentieth centuries when families like the Rothchilds became avid collectors. For a brief account of these carpets covering the arguments as to their origins please see the foreword to the Bernheimer Family Collection of Carpets sold in these Rooms, 14th Febraury 1996, pp.15-16.