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Lot Essay
Indian court carpet production is thought to date from the reign of the Mughal Emperor Akbar (r.1556 -1605). The nascent Indian carpet weaving industry was greatly influenced by the dissemination of this knowledge which was precipitated by Shah Tahmasp closing many of the royal design ateliers. As a result Persian artists travelled to India looking for new opportunities taking with them their acquired skills and workshop experience. When Akbar's son Jahangir succeeded the throne and became Emperor (r.1605 -1627) he continued his father’s legacy as an avid patron of the arts, encouraging artists to capture the beautiful specimens of Indian flora and fauna. Until around 1630 designs were based upon earlier Persian models which were then interpreted in a distinctly Indian style. Often of long and impressive proportions, these carpets were divided into three design groups by M.S. Dimand and Jean Mailey (M.S. Dimand and J. Mailey, Oriental Rugs in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 1973, p. 119). The first, decorated with scenes of animals and gardens became known as the 'Paradise Garden' or 'Hunting' carpets which derived from Safavid ‘animal’ rugs such as the Sangusko carpet in the Miho Museum in Japan (A.U. Pope, A Survey of Persian Art, Oxford, 1939, pls. 1203-1210). Another group showed the influence of Mughal miniature painting with pictorial and figural scenes, while the third was the symmetrical overall field design of the present lot. Formed of an endless repeat of in-and-out, up-and-down palmettes linked by flowering spiralling vine, it echoes earlier seventeenth century Herat rugs but with a twist. Whilst the palmettes and the spiralling vine are clearly Persian motifs, the grape-like bunches of wisteria racemes alternating with lanceolate leaves are very much Indian. In addition the thick multi-stranded cotton warps, the madder red ground and the use of ton-sur-ton colouring are all indicative of Indian weaving.
The elegant drawing of this carpet shows a careful consideration for each individual leaf, palmette and blossom, which are enhanced by the use of outlining and decorating using ton-sur-ton colour combinations. The border configuration and field design of the present carpet relates closely to the famous Girdlers carpet commissioned by Robert Bell in the 1630s for the Girdlers Company, a livery company in the City of London, (J. Irwin, The Girdlers Carpet, London, 1962, p. 1). The surviving East India Company records from 1630 and 1634 provide us with an exact location and date for the commissioning and weaving of the carpet, which help to give a precise date and weaving origin for this carpet. Two related early seventeenth-century examples are in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (Dimand and Mailey, op. cit., fig. 129, cat. 55 and fig. 130, cat. 56). The first, (cat. 55) previously in the collection of Lady Sackville and gifted by J.Pierpont Morgan, has the same floral motifs in the overall field design but are arranged in a different manner to create an alternative rhythm. The border on that carpet is very different to this leaf and palmette border in that it comprises a series of linked cartouche panels interspersed with small decorative cloudbands and was inspired by classic late sixteenth-century Persian carpet design. The second (cat. 56), formerly in the collection of George Blumenthal, is much smaller in size but has the same field design of stems balanced on either side forming lozenges along the long axis. Whilst that border is one of the closest to the present carpet, the leaves that flank each alternate palmette are smaller serrated saz leaves rather than the curvaceous bunches of wisteria.
The popularity of this beautiful design is attested by the number of known variants that remain in important collections today, including one in the Glasgow Museums and Art Galleries, Burrell Collection (S.B. Sherrill, Carpets and Rugs of Europe and America, New York, 1996, pl. 161, p. 148), another in the Mosteiro de Santa Maria, Lorvấo (J. Hallett and T.P. Pereira, The Oriental Carpet in Portugal, Exhibition Catalogue, Lisbon, 2007, pl. 46, p. 117) and another which was sold from The V. and L. Benguiat Private Collection of Rare Old Rugs at the American Art Galleries, 4 & 5 December 1925, lot 34.
The elegant drawing of this carpet shows a careful consideration for each individual leaf, palmette and blossom, which are enhanced by the use of outlining and decorating using ton-sur-ton colour combinations. The border configuration and field design of the present carpet relates closely to the famous Girdlers carpet commissioned by Robert Bell in the 1630s for the Girdlers Company, a livery company in the City of London, (J. Irwin, The Girdlers Carpet, London, 1962, p. 1). The surviving East India Company records from 1630 and 1634 provide us with an exact location and date for the commissioning and weaving of the carpet, which help to give a precise date and weaving origin for this carpet. Two related early seventeenth-century examples are in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (Dimand and Mailey, op. cit., fig. 129, cat. 55 and fig. 130, cat. 56). The first, (cat. 55) previously in the collection of Lady Sackville and gifted by J.Pierpont Morgan, has the same floral motifs in the overall field design but are arranged in a different manner to create an alternative rhythm. The border on that carpet is very different to this leaf and palmette border in that it comprises a series of linked cartouche panels interspersed with small decorative cloudbands and was inspired by classic late sixteenth-century Persian carpet design. The second (cat. 56), formerly in the collection of George Blumenthal, is much smaller in size but has the same field design of stems balanced on either side forming lozenges along the long axis. Whilst that border is one of the closest to the present carpet, the leaves that flank each alternate palmette are smaller serrated saz leaves rather than the curvaceous bunches of wisteria.
The popularity of this beautiful design is attested by the number of known variants that remain in important collections today, including one in the Glasgow Museums and Art Galleries, Burrell Collection (S.B. Sherrill, Carpets and Rugs of Europe and America, New York, 1996, pl. 161, p. 148), another in the Mosteiro de Santa Maria, Lorvấo (J. Hallett and T.P. Pereira, The Oriental Carpet in Portugal, Exhibition Catalogue, Lisbon, 2007, pl. 46, p. 117) and another which was sold from The V. and L. Benguiat Private Collection of Rare Old Rugs at the American Art Galleries, 4 & 5 December 1925, lot 34.