Middle East, Carpet. Carpet fragment, wool knotted pile on wool warp and cotton weft, design of lotus flowers in trellis of floral stems on yellow ground, possibly Safavid Tabriz, Iran, 1500-1525

Carpet fragment, from the field; hand-knotted woollen pile on woollen warp and weft
WARP: white wool; Z2S; 31 thread per inch/124 per dm; depressed.
WEFT: white cotton; unable to ascertain spin, ply, twist; 3 shoots after each row of knots; 14 knots per inch/54 per dm.
PILE: wool; 11 colours: dark red, red, orange, yellow, dark green, green, dark blue, blue, pink, brown, white; asymmetrical knot tied around two threads and open to the left; 217 knots per sq.inch/3348 per sq.dm.
SIDE AND END FINISHES: cut and oversewn at a later date.
DESIGN: orange ground with a pattern of angular dark green stems bearing small red and dark green leaves, buds and blossoms and carrying large mtoifs of palmettes, lotuses etc.. in all colours. Two 'red' blossoms have curling petals to show white underside. In the lower left hand corner [as made] is part of a diamond lozenge with a dark red ground and green border.

This is a fragment of the field of a carpet. It is covered with a grid-like pattern of fine stems but part of a diamond or lozenge can be seen in one corner.

T.29-1956