Carpet, wool knotted pile on cotton warp and wool weft, possibly Kurdistan, Iran, Qajar period, 1860

Carpet Design: dark blue ground with large scale Herati pattern of one and two half rows. There is a red diamond enclosing a red and light blue rosette. A green trefoil leaf with two red berries extends from the rosette and lies over each side of the diamond. The large curved leaves are red and light blue.

Main border: red ground with a red meander outlined in light blue, with a spray of white flowers on the diagonal with green; these separate rosettes in dark red, dark brown and light blue, and on either side is a red bud which in the lower centre becomes a double blossom. In the centre of the upper border, in place of a rosette, is a four-legged animal with a human being above, wearing a yellow and black costume; to the left is an inscription and date.

Inner and Outer Borders: white ground with a floral meander, with a dark brown stem and multi-coloured flowers. In the centre of the upper outer border the flower is doubled.

Wool knotted pile, on cotton warp and wool weft; symmetrical knot; 85 knots per sq. in (1,419 per sq. dm)
Warp: white cotton; Z6S; 17 threads/ inch; 66 per dm
Weft: light brown wool; Z-spun, unplied; 1 shoot after every row of knos; 10 knots per inch; 43 per dm
Pile: wool; 10 colours: dark red, red, yellow, green, dark blue, light blue, dark purple, light purple, dark brown, white; symmetrical knot, tied around two warp threads; 85 knots per sq. inch; 1419 per sq.dm
Side Finish: one cord oversewn with red wool
End Finish: Lower: incomplete but evidence of warp twining; Upper: 1"/ 2.5cm of plain weave with dark brown wool and 4 rows of warp twining

Bought at Vincent J. Robinson & Co., 34 Wigmore Street, London, for £44. Museum curator Caspar Purdon Clarke recommended the purchase, describing the carpet as "Kurdish, [...] the large patterns well coloured show a great superiority over the small patterns of the present day". He had not noticed the carpet's date, woven into the pattern: 1277H (equivalent to 1860-61).

The most noticeable elements of this pattern (sometimes called the Herati pattern) are a diamond and four curling leaves. It remains one of the most popular carpet patterns and appears with many variations: radically different effects can be achieved by simply changing the proportion of the motifs or by using colour to highlight particular parts of it. This is a balanced and controlled design but an element of fun has been introduced in the middle of the upper border, to the side of the woven date: there is an animal and, above it, a small human figure wearing a brightly striped garment. Below and to one side of the animal is the islamic date 1277AH, which corresponds to1860-61 AD.

390-1880