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Lot Essay
The knot count is approximately 14V x 18H per cm. sq.
This previously unpublished fragment originates from an exquisite Mughal carpet, a member of a rare group of weavings from the reign of the Emperor Shah Jahan (1628 – 1658). These carpets all share a similar niche-and-flower arrangement and are executed in extremely finely woven pashmina wool on a silk foundation. The Paravicini carpet, now in a private Belgian collection (Daniel Walker, Flowers Underfoot, Indian Carpets of the Mughal Era, New York, 1997, cat.no.19, fig.88, p.91), most closely relates to our fragment and, although it has been reduced in size along the vertical axis, gives the clearest indication of the composition of our original carpet. The third example of the group; the so-called Aynard carpet, now in the Thyssen-Bornemisza Collection and on loan to the Fundación Colección Thyssen-Bornemisza (T-90) (D. Walker, ibid, cat.no.21, fig.92, p.94), has a more elaborately decorated red-ground field, is slightly less finely woven and likely to have emanated from a multiple niche saf.
Our fragment is formed of two vertically joined sections, which exhibit the ivory-ground spandrels, inner guard and minor stripes and main border of the top two corners of the original carpet. There are currently six other identified fragments; the largest and most well-known is in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, bequest of Benjamin Altman, 1913 (14.40.722). The MET fragment is from the lower left-hand side of the field, confirming the inclusion of a large central flower flanked by smaller ones growing from a floral landscape that is in line with the Paravicini carpet, but also reveals the addition of an architectural column. Three further fragments were gifted in 1908 by Denman Waldo Ross to the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (08.388). Two are from the main border and the third shows the top right-hand side of the field, displaying the lower-most point of the thick leafy vine forming the mihrab, which rests on the capital of a further column. A fragment in the Al-Sabah Collection, Kuwait (Inv.no. LNS 16 R) shows the apex of the mihrab which terminates in a serrated trefoil motif, and would have been positioned between our two fragments. The final known fragment, which would have joined directly onto the right-hand side of the Al-Sabah example, sold at Bonhams, London, 27 Apr 2004, lot 66. In her 1982 article May Beattie mentions a further fragment in Leicester (M. Beattie, Charles G. Ellis and Hanna Erdmann, ‘The art of the Mughal carpet’, HALI, Vol. 4 No. 3, 1982, p. 220) although it is not known whether this differs from the aforementioned examples.
Pashmina wool has both lustre and durability, which has meant that the pile of the carpet has remained intact whilst the fragility of the silk structure has resulted in the creation of multiple fragments. The use of such wool, often mistaken for silk, along with a silk warp and weft has allowed for an incredibly fine weave. When this is combined with the skill and dexterity of the Indian court weavers, the result is wonderfully detailed and naturalistic floral representations. Such designs of flowering plants are widely found in the decorative arts as well as in the royal architecture of the Shah Jahan period.
This previously unpublished fragment originates from an exquisite Mughal carpet, a member of a rare group of weavings from the reign of the Emperor Shah Jahan (1628 – 1658). These carpets all share a similar niche-and-flower arrangement and are executed in extremely finely woven pashmina wool on a silk foundation. The Paravicini carpet, now in a private Belgian collection (Daniel Walker, Flowers Underfoot, Indian Carpets of the Mughal Era, New York, 1997, cat.no.19, fig.88, p.91), most closely relates to our fragment and, although it has been reduced in size along the vertical axis, gives the clearest indication of the composition of our original carpet. The third example of the group; the so-called Aynard carpet, now in the Thyssen-Bornemisza Collection and on loan to the Fundación Colección Thyssen-Bornemisza (T-90) (D. Walker, ibid, cat.no.21, fig.92, p.94), has a more elaborately decorated red-ground field, is slightly less finely woven and likely to have emanated from a multiple niche saf.
Our fragment is formed of two vertically joined sections, which exhibit the ivory-ground spandrels, inner guard and minor stripes and main border of the top two corners of the original carpet. There are currently six other identified fragments; the largest and most well-known is in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, bequest of Benjamin Altman, 1913 (14.40.722). The MET fragment is from the lower left-hand side of the field, confirming the inclusion of a large central flower flanked by smaller ones growing from a floral landscape that is in line with the Paravicini carpet, but also reveals the addition of an architectural column. Three further fragments were gifted in 1908 by Denman Waldo Ross to the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (08.388). Two are from the main border and the third shows the top right-hand side of the field, displaying the lower-most point of the thick leafy vine forming the mihrab, which rests on the capital of a further column. A fragment in the Al-Sabah Collection, Kuwait (Inv.no. LNS 16 R) shows the apex of the mihrab which terminates in a serrated trefoil motif, and would have been positioned between our two fragments. The final known fragment, which would have joined directly onto the right-hand side of the Al-Sabah example, sold at Bonhams, London, 27 Apr 2004, lot 66. In her 1982 article May Beattie mentions a further fragment in Leicester (M. Beattie, Charles G. Ellis and Hanna Erdmann, ‘The art of the Mughal carpet’, HALI, Vol. 4 No. 3, 1982, p. 220) although it is not known whether this differs from the aforementioned examples.
Pashmina wool has both lustre and durability, which has meant that the pile of the carpet has remained intact whilst the fragility of the silk structure has resulted in the creation of multiple fragments. The use of such wool, often mistaken for silk, along with a silk warp and weft has allowed for an incredibly fine weave. When this is combined with the skill and dexterity of the Indian court weavers, the result is wonderfully detailed and naturalistic floral representations. Such designs of flowering plants are widely found in the decorative arts as well as in the royal architecture of the Shah Jahan period.