PROBABLY DECCAN, CENTRAL INDIA, 19TH CENTURY

Very few Indian silk carpets survive from the 19th century and even fewer remain in good condition. The present lot is a remarkable survivor and its condition is superb. The field design of our carpet relates to an earlier 17th/18th century Deccan silk rug which was offered in these Rooms, 24 April 1997, lot 428. The design has echoes of the Mughal floral lattice carpets but somehow appears reinvented, like the transformation of Mughal designs in the hands of East Turkestan weavers. There is an interesting heavy natural corrosion to the ivory silk which is a feature that we have seen in a small 18th century Warangal silk rug sold in these Rooms, 8 October 2013, lot 48.