PROBABLY SA'ADIAN FEZ, MOROCCO, 16TH OR 17TH CENTURY

The design of this textile, as well as the lampas technique used to create it, is evocative of the silk wall hangings of Nasrid Spain, an example of which is in the museum of the Hispanic Society of America (acc.no.H921). However, the overall colour palette as well as the inclusion of a register of birds and trees indicate that this is more likely to have been produced in Morocco in the centuries after the fall of Granada, when many skilled artisans fled the reconquista. An unusual multiple-niche design (saf) was with Michael Franses in 1997 (HALI 92, p.147). Closer to the present lot are examples in the George Washington Textile Museum, Washington D.C. (acc.no.74.5) and the Art Institute of Chicago, Illinois (acc.no.2003.105). Over time the design became progressively more simplified, so that by the 18th century the birds which appear on our textile had been omitted altogether. An example of a later sash is in the Roger S. Pratt Collection, New Jersey. A further example sold in these Rooms, 7 April 2011, lot 121.