NORTH INDIA, EARLY 17TH CENTURY

This carpet fragment is part of one of the well-known Mughal 'animal and palmette' carpets such as The Widener Animal Carpet (M. Brand and G.D.Lowry, Akbar's India: Art from the Mughal City of Victory, New York, 1985, No.73). Their designs were heavily influenced by the Persian Safavid Animal Hunting carpets but have their own distinct style. Kurt Erdmann refers to the animals in the Mughal carpets as travelling at a 'flying gallop' across the surface and Friedrich Spuhler remarks on their elongated bodies which differ from their Safavid prototypes, B.W. Robinson et al. Islamic Art in the Keir Collection, London 1988, pp.84-5. Now usually dated to the reign of Akbar (1556-1605), these carpets were obviously still popular in the middle of the century. A miniature in the Austrian National Library of this latter date, shows Prince Murad standing on a pair of such carpets (D. Duda, Die Islamische Handschriften der Österreichischen Nationalbibliothek, Vienna, 1983, pl.482). Many animals are identical to those found here, such as the tiger preparing to pounce, the alert hare and the white crane. A fragment from another 'animal' carpet, formerly in the Bernheimer Collection which sold in these Rooms, 14 February 1996, lot 47, displays a similar field design and palette but also includes a section of its original blue border which is filled with running deer, flanked on either side by narrow minor stripes that display miniature birds and animals. The deer in that border are remarkably similar to those in a detail of a manuscript illustrated in 1606-7 AD by the well known painter Mushfiq (Christie's London, 18th October, London, 1994, lot 8). It is highly probable that the well known artists at the time inspired the carpet weavers, it is therefore possible that this fragment was made in the second quarter of the 17th century. A further six fragments from this group were sold in Christie's London, 19 October 1995, lot 437. All of the fragments display considerable adjustments to the wefting in order to keep the rows of knots uniform. This is a feature noticeable in other early Mughal rugs including the Waq-Waq carpet, a fragment of which sold in these Rooms, 20 October 1994, lot 569.

For a comparable complete Mughal ‘animal and palmette' carpet (358 x 160cm.), probably Lahore, North India, Jahangir period (1605-1627), see Sotheby’s, New York, Carpets from the Estate of Vojtech Blau, 14 December 2006, lot 54. The field shows a very similar arrangement of small animals amongst larger palmettes and flowers, and distinctive use of white raceme motifs. For a comprehensive discussion of this group of carpets and fragments, see Daniel Walker, Flowers Underfoot: Indian Carpets of the Mughal Era, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 1997, Chp. 4, The Carpets, Persian Style, pp.29-85, ‘Scrolling vine and animal pattern’, pp.45-57, fig. 41 (cat.no. 7a) for vertical fragments including a section of the lower border of the same design (Textile Museum, Washington Museum of Art, DC – Inv.R63.002), together with fig. 43 (cat.no. 7b) and fig. 44 (cat.no. 7c): Collection Howard Hodgkin, London, later sold Sotheby's, 24 October 2017, lot 191. Two further fragments bought on the London market in 1982 are now in the Keir Collection, London B.W.Robinson et.al, op.cit, fig. 32 and 33, pp.84-5.