DECCAN, INDIA, CIRCA 1800

Our textile is unusual among this group, which is generally accepted to have been woven in the Deccan and exported to Europe via Goa, because it lacks almost any metal thread. Stephen Cohen suggests that such examples may have been woven in 'different, as yet unidentified, centres in south India', rather than the centres normally associated with this group (Stephen Cohen, 'Deccani Embroidered Floor Spread', HALI 186, p.48). However, there are a number of similarities which allow our piece to be connected to examples which have this metal thread. The pale ground and open border is similar to an example sold as part of the Ann and Gordon Getty Collection, Christie's New York, 24 October 2022, lot 1130. The design with a peacock in the central medallion also relates to examples in the Peabody Essex Museum, Massachusetts (acc.no.2012.22.3).