WEST PERSIA, CIRCA 1870

By the late 19th century in Persia there was a fashionable interest in the textiles, tapestries and furnishings imported from Russia and Europe. These chintz and rococo-style influences were combined with highly floral designs, the most popular of which was the gul-u-bul-bul, 'rose and nightingale' pattern comprising rose-filled bouquets upon which paired birds are nesting, each linked with flowering wreaths and leafy garlands. Originating in earlier Safavid art, the gul-o-bul-bul motif continued to be employed in both Persian literature and painting and proliferated all types of objects during the Qajar period, to the extent that it came practically to symbolize the country itself. For comparable examples see, Siawosch Azadi, Persian Carpets. Vol. 1. Catalog of the Tehran Carpet Museum, Tehran 1977, no.10 and Cecil A. Edwards, The Persian Carpet, London 1975, ill.118.