NORTH WEST PERSIA, CIRCA 1920

The design, including the inscription cartouches, closely copies the Safavid 'Emperor's carpets', one of which is in the Museum für Angewandte Kunst in Vienna. Its pair, sold to Duveen through Christie's in 1929, is now in the Metropolitan Museum, New York. The Persian couplets that enclose the main field are from a poem by the eleventh century court poet, Manucheri Damghani (1031-1040). A similar example woven in the PETAG workshop, which had white cotton highlights within its design, was sold in these Rooms, 7 October 2010, lot 113 and a larger carpet of over seven meters was published by Franz Bausback, (Alte und Antike Orientalishe Knupkunst, Mannheim, October 1980, p.64). For further information on the PETAG workshop see the previous lot in the present sale.