CENTRAL PERSIA, 17TH CENTURY

This Isfahan carpet shows what is likely to have been the next stage in the design development after the initial group of wool foundation carpets. The elements are all very similar, but now the saz leaf has made its initial appearance. Still small, and not nearly as exuberant as it became later in the century, but definitely there, finishing each of the spiralling tendrils. For a discussion about the group please see Jessica Hallett, 'From the Looms of Yazd and Isfahan', in Carpets and Textiles in the Iranian World, Oxford and Genoa 2010, pp.90-123) and the foreword to the Bernheimer Family Collection of Carpets sold in these Rooms, 14th February 1996, pp.15-16.