NORTH INDIA, CIRCA 1860

The present bold border of alternating elongated cartouches and roundels filled with decorative floral motifs and an ivory-lace-like surround, is taken almost directly from earlier 16th and 17th century Ottoman Cairene carpets. A directly comparable border is found on a carpet in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London (Acc no. 476-1883). While the border of the present carpet copies the original almost faithfully, the design of the field is a much looser and more openly spaced interpretation of the original, which in turn reveals more of the unusual turquoise-blue ground.