Jail Carpet
Carpet
1880 (made)
1880 (made)
| Artist/Maker | |
| Place of origin |
Carpet, wool knotted pile on cotton foundation.
Design: Field: dark red ground with a quartered design of mainly yellow and blue medium-sized and small blossoms and palmettes in offset bands, those in the central row crowned with cloudbands. The two adjacent rows are on a vertical yellow line and the large motifs in the central band are similarly decorated with cloudbands. The ground is strewn with yellow and pink flowers and green leaves on green and yellow stems.
Main border: dark green ground with alternating red and light blue blossoms on fine stems with smaller flowers and leaves.
Inner border: reciprocal yellow and light blue elaborately scalloped design enclosing a small flower.
Outer border: red ground with light blue or yellow leaf and three small flowerheads.
Outermost border: undecorated dark green band.
Design: Field: dark red ground with a quartered design of mainly yellow and blue medium-sized and small blossoms and palmettes in offset bands, those in the central row crowned with cloudbands. The two adjacent rows are on a vertical yellow line and the large motifs in the central band are similarly decorated with cloudbands. The ground is strewn with yellow and pink flowers and green leaves on green and yellow stems.
Main border: dark green ground with alternating red and light blue blossoms on fine stems with smaller flowers and leaves.
Inner border: reciprocal yellow and light blue elaborately scalloped design enclosing a small flower.
Outer border: red ground with light blue or yellow leaf and three small flowerheads.
Outermost border: undecorated dark green band.
Object details
| Category | |
| Object type | |
| Title | Jail Carpet |
| Materials and techniques | Warp: white cotton; Z6S; 46 threads per inch (180 per dm); depressed
Weft: white cotton; Z-spun, unplied; very difficult to determine, there may be other components; the weft is not passed after every row of knots, but appears to be every cm.; 20 knots per inch (84 per dm).
Pile: wool; 8 colours: dark red, yellow, dark green, light green, dark blue, light blue, pink, white and possibly other pale colours, now faded; asymmetrical knot open to the right and tied around 2 threads but so heavily depressed that it is not possible to see the collar of the knot; 460 knots per sq. inch (check), (7560 per sq. dm. check).
Side finish: 2 cords overcast with red wool.
End Finish: both have two rows of offset knotting; 2.5 cm. long |
| Brief description | Carpet, wool knotted pile on cotton foundation, woven to a historic design, Agra Central Prison, India, c.1880 |
| Physical description | Carpet, wool knotted pile on cotton foundation. Design: Field: dark red ground with a quartered design of mainly yellow and blue medium-sized and small blossoms and palmettes in offset bands, those in the central row crowned with cloudbands. The two adjacent rows are on a vertical yellow line and the large motifs in the central band are similarly decorated with cloudbands. The ground is strewn with yellow and pink flowers and green leaves on green and yellow stems. Main border: dark green ground with alternating red and light blue blossoms on fine stems with smaller flowers and leaves. Inner border: reciprocal yellow and light blue elaborately scalloped design enclosing a small flower. Outer border: red ground with light blue or yellow leaf and three small flowerheads. Outermost border: undecorated dark green band. |
| Dimensions |
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| Credit line | Given by F. L. Lucas, Esq. |
| Object history | Woven about 1880 in the Central Prison at Agra, from a design adapted from a Persian seventeenth-century model. Acquisition register notes that this was "Probably produced when Dr Tyler (afterwards Sir John Tyler) was superintendent of the Agra jail." Given by F. L. Lucas, Esq., 15 Westbourne Terrace, Paddington, W. This acquisition information reflects that found in the Museum records (Asia Department registers and/or Central Inventory) as part of a 2023 provenance research project. RF 1915/1056 |
| Collection | |
| Accession number | IM.9-1915 |
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| Record created | July 13, 2016 |
| Record URL |
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