NORTH EAST PERSIA, FIRST HALF 19TH CENTURY

This Khorasan carpet is part of a small group of which a number include nasta'liq couplets woven into the Harshang pattern field. One was published by Arthur Upham Pope (A Survey of Persian Art, Oxford, 1938, pl.1272A). A second example was in The Bernheimer Family Collection of Carpets, sold in these Rooms 14 February 1996, lot 60 and a third sold in these Rooms, 6 April 2006, lot 168. The example in Pope appears to be dated 1281⁄1864-5, while the Bernheimer example was dated 1218⁄1813-14. The latter date seems the more probable for the group. Unfortunately the calligraphic cartouches have been removed on the present carpet which quite possibly would have included the date of when it was woven, although we can safely assume it was during the early decades of the 19th century.