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Lot Essay
The renaissance in Indian carpet production in the late 19th century was buoyed by the weaver’s exposure to earlier Safavid and Mughal designs both through the carpets of the Maharaja of Jaipur and the collection in Bijapur and, later, the publication of lavish carpet reference books with hand-coloured plates such as Arthur Upham Pope's, Survey of Persian Art, Oxford, 1938. The prototype for this carpet is a magnificent silk Kashan rug of animal combat design in the Calouste Gulbenkian Museum, Lisbon (inv.no.T100).
William Burney Bannerman was born in 1858, studied medicine at the University of Edinburgh, graduating in 1881. He subsequently joined the British Army as part of the Indian Medical Service where he served as a surgeon from 1883. After postings in Bombay, Secunderabad, Baluchistan and Tiruchirapalli, where he worked to control the cholera epidemic, he returned to Edinburgh in 1895 beginning studies in the field of inoculation. By April 1899 he was made director of the Plague Research Laboratory in Madras and was raised to lieutenant colonel in 1903, rising through the ranks to became director of the Bombay Bacteriological Laboratory and to brevet colonel, surgeon general for the Madras district and eventually becoming honorary physician to King George V (in India).
Much of the weaving at this time was woven in jails, primarily in Agra and Lahore. Colonel Bannerman commissioned this carpet, along with several others, from Vellore jail in South India, to furnish his home in Edinburgh where it remained for 60 years until it passed down by descent to the family in London.
William Burney Bannerman was born in 1858, studied medicine at the University of Edinburgh, graduating in 1881. He subsequently joined the British Army as part of the Indian Medical Service where he served as a surgeon from 1883. After postings in Bombay, Secunderabad, Baluchistan and Tiruchirapalli, where he worked to control the cholera epidemic, he returned to Edinburgh in 1895 beginning studies in the field of inoculation. By April 1899 he was made director of the Plague Research Laboratory in Madras and was raised to lieutenant colonel in 1903, rising through the ranks to became director of the Bombay Bacteriological Laboratory and to brevet colonel, surgeon general for the Madras district and eventually becoming honorary physician to King George V (in India).
Much of the weaving at this time was woven in jails, primarily in Agra and Lahore. Colonel Bannerman commissioned this carpet, along with several others, from Vellore jail in South India, to furnish his home in Edinburgh where it remained for 60 years until it passed down by descent to the family in London.