A MASSIVE TABRIZ CARPET
Lot 20

A MASSIVE TABRIZ CARPET

NORTH WEST PERSIA, DATED AH 1309/1891-92 AD

Closed20 May 2010

Price Realised

GBP 97,250

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A MASSIVE TABRIZ CARPET
NORTH WEST PERSIA, DATED AH 1309/1891-92 AD
Overall excellent pile, one area of light surface dying, a couple of minute faults
Approx. 32 ft. 8 in. x 19 ft. 11 in. (995 cm. x 608 cm.)

By verbal tradition presented by Nasir al-Din Shah (1848-96) to a German Royal family on his European visit in 1896.
Anon sale Christie's London, 1 May 2003, lot 100.

Specialist note

The inscription cartouches flanking the central medallion contain a Persian couplet followed by the commissioning inscription which translates: "Commissioned by Qalichi Tabrizi in one thousand and three hundred of hijra, the year 13[00]".

The verbal tradition within the German royal family though which this carpet has descended is that it was received as a gift from Nasir al-Din Shah. The date on the carpet, about which there can be no doubt as it is spelled out in letters as well as being in figures, means that it could either have been given as the result of an encounter in the Shah's second visit to Europe in 1878, or brought with him as an intended present on his third and last visit in 1889. The absence of any mention of a royal comission in the inscriptions on it makes the second of these two options the more probable.