SOUTH EAST PERSIA, CIRCA 1900

Both cypress trees and peacocks are indications of paradise. This is a design based on an old Kirman motif whose execution has been changed to suit the taste of the turn of the early 20th century but whose content is the same as a rug bought in Kirman in 1895, when it was probably already old, by Miss Ella Sykes, sister of the famous Sir Percy Sykes (Carpets of Central Persia, exhibition catalogue, Sheffield and Birmingham, 1976, no.59, p.83).