Indo–Tabriz Carpet

India circa 1920

274×355 cm

Although India in antiquity possessed no traditional carpet weaving culture craftsmen brought from Persia in the early 16th century were employed in court sponsored workshops that endeavored to produce high quality carpets. At first bearing almost unrecognizable affinity to contemporary Persian productions, over the course of a century an unmistakable Indo quality began to emerge. The carpets of the Mughal royal court were first unquestionably influenced by the Persian designs. Eventually there emerged a distinctive style based on local Indian floral iconography. Once the metamorphosis from the Persian designs was complete, the distinctive fashion in which the Indian draftsmen reproduced the magnificent allusion of flowers had become unmistakable. Ironically, the carpets produced by Indian craftsman at the height of Mughal ascendancy are now regarded to be the most technically sophisticated carpets ever woven.

The present carpet was mostly likely produced in a local Indian workshop sometime during the 1st quarter of the 20th century.