POSSIBLY BY THEODORE TUDUC, EASTERN EUROPE, EARLY 20TH CENTURY

The probable creator of this carpet was Theodor Tuduc (1888-1983), a Romanian carpet restorer who became renowned for creating forgeries of Classical carpets in the first half of the 20th century. His creations often used a slightly different colour palette to the original and the designs are mostly designed as mirror images as opposed to the ascending directional patterns of many of the originals. At the time, many of his fakes were acquired by collectors and institutions as authentic and rather than being dismissed, have, in their own right, become pieces of historical interest. For a fuller discussion of Tuduc, please see Stefano Ionescu, Handbook of Fakes by Tuduc, Rome, 2010

The 'Garden' design, depicted in the present lot, is one of a large number of seventeenth century designs created in south east Persia which travelled to the north west of the country in the eighteenth century. The prototype of the design can be seen in a carpet woven in the 'vase' technique in the royal collection in Jaipur. Both Kurt Erdmann (Seven Hundred Years of Oriental Carpets, London, 1970, pp.66-70) and Christine Klose ('Betrachtungen zu nordwestpersischen Gartenteppichen des 18. Jahrhunderts', HALI, vol.1, no.2, (1978), p.114) discuss the development of the group. The design of the present carpet has copied one of the later examples in the development, typified by the lack of birds among the trees, and the simplified rendering of the trees and pool medallions.