B.J. Roelofsz was employed by Groeneweg, Dunlop and Co., a subsidiary of J.C.P Hotz and Son, in Tabriz, Iran. In this letter dated 25 March 1901, Roelofsz writes to C.R. Smith in Sultanabad, regarding a proposed new carpet business to be established in Tabriz. At the time, Smith was based in Sultanabad with the Persian Carpet Manufacturing Company, which was also controlled by J.C.P. Hotz and Son. Roelofsz discusses current production costs, including materials and wages, for weaving in Tabriz.

The C.R. Smith archive consists of an album of 60 mounted albumen prints (predominantly portraits and topographical views, taken in Iran and Iraq), a further 24 loose photographs, and a series of letters and memos.

These document a correspondence between Charles R. Smith (born 1866) and various colleagues made throughout 1901, when he was approached to join a new carpet enterprise in Tabriz. He duly left Sultanabad where he had been working for the Persian Carpet Manufacturing Company, but by July of the same year he had returned to his native Kidderminster in England. It is not known if the Tabriz business plan was ever realised.