REAL FÁBRICA DE TAPICES, SPAIN, EARLY 19TH CENTURY

The design of the present lot is highly unusual in its effective simulation of polychrome marble, which is reflected in its name La de los mármoles which translates as 'The marbles'. The arrangement of polychrome 'marbled' panels in the present carpet most probably corresponds to a particular entrance or reception area of one of the many grand buildings in Madrid such as the Congress of Deputies referenced in the note to lot 134 of the present sale. The mottled effect is characteristic of carpets produced in the Real Fábrica de Tapices and is most often used as a border design demonstrated by a late eighteenth century carpet exhibited by José Ferrandis Torres in 1933 (Catálogo de la Exposición de Alfombras Antiguas Españolas, exhibition catalogue, Madrid, 1933, no.76 and Sarah B. Sherrill, Carpets and Rugs of Europe and America, New York, 1996, pl.57, p.54), a Spanish carpet in the Neoclassical style formerly in the Houghton Hall collection, which sold in these Rooms, Houghton, 8 December 1994, lot 81 and published by Valérie Bérinstain et al. (Great Carpets of the World, Paris, 1996, no.334, p.332); and lots 134, 137 and 140 of the present sale.