NORTH WEST PERSIA, CIRCA 1860

The knot count measures approximately 10V x 10H knots per cm. sq.

We know of relatively few silk portière. An interesting example dated AH1270/1853-4 AD and bearing an inscription suggesting that it may have been woven for Nasir al-Din Shah (r.1848-96) was offered in these Rooms 14 October 2004, lot 50. Another example woven with the Qajar crown in the design, is in the collection of James D. Burns (Visions of Nature: the Antique weavings of Persia, New York, 2010, p.41, no.4) while another was published by George Farrow's frequent collaborator Leonard Harrow (The Fabric of Paradise, London, 1988). Farrow himself believed that the patron of the present carpet may have been an Armenian church in North West Persia or Eastern Turkey.

The design of the present lot, dominated by a pair of ornate flowering vases, resembles a rug sold at Sotheby's, 18 October 1995, lot 116, and another published by Jon Thompson, Silk, Carpets, and the Silk Road, Tokyo, 1988, p.82, no.86. Like them, this rug has small figural elements, with two faces woven into the lower corners of the field.