INDIA, LATE 17TH/EARLY 18TH CENTURY

In the same way as the Safavids, the Mughal courts produced velvet carpets woven in coloured silks on a metal-thread ground. The borders were always woven separately and attached later. The most impressive of all is probably that in the Metropolitan Museum of Art (Stuart Cary Welch, India, exhibition catalogue, New York, 1985, no.136, p.207). The present border was almost certainly made for a small velvet floorspread similar for example to one in the Victoria and Albert Museum (Court Life and Arts under Mughal Rule, exhibition catalogue, London, 1982, no.223, p.88).

For another panel with similar design see Christie's, 25 April 2013, lot 180. Other panels sold at Christie's, 13 April 2013, lot 302 and 6 October 2009, lot 247.