Middle East, Carpet. Carpet fragment, wool knotted pile on wool warp and possibly cotton weft, border design of half-palmette strapwork and floral scrolls on red ground, Tabriz, Iran, 1500-1525

Carpet fragment, part of the left hand border; hand-knotted woollen pile on woollen warp and cotton weft; Persian, 16th-17th century.
WARP: white wool; Z2S; 32 threads per inch/128 per dm; depressed

WEFT: white cotton; ? spin, ply, twist, ? 3 shoots after each row of knots; 13 knots per inch/ 52 per dm

PILE: wool; 8 colours: dark red, red, yellow, green, light green, dark blue, blue, white; asymmetrical knotted around two threads and open to the left; 208 knots per sq.inch/3328 per sq.dm

SIDE FINISH: cut and oversewn at later date

END FINISH: upper: cut and oversewn at later date; lower: cut.

DESIGN: The main border is incomplete in width; dark red ground with two wide strapwork 'layers' one on top of the other; in blue edge with white infilled with blossoms and small flowers on thin yellow stems. One incomplete plamette in green edged with yellow, another partial palmette in dark blue. Underlying the strapwork is a narrow green stem carrying flowers and leaves.
Outer border: green ground with red meander bearing tulip-shaped flowers, over a fine yellow broken double meander bearing two types of white blossom and buds.
Outermost border: white ground with angular red meander and multi-coloured flowers, to the outside of which is a band of curvilinear S and Z motifs in dark green and red.

Purchased from an Istanbul source.

This is a fragment of the left hand border. Borders are often ignored when design is discussed, but they deserve equal attention, especially in pre-19th century carpets such as this which combines delicacy and boldness.

T.30-1956