Antique Agra carpet, India

Ref: 2345

A simply stunning and extremely rare antique Agra carpet of square proportions woven in India, the city famous for the Taj Mahal. Beautiful natural dyes on this carpet with soft purples blues, greens and rich burgundy dyes. Each corner has been signed by the weavers, also there are some charming animal motifs in the outer border.  This carpet is also very rare as it has the date woven into each of the four corners of the carpet, woven in the Persian Calendar it reads 1246 which translates to 1867 in the gregorian calendar.

The Indian city of Agra in the late 19th century was an area where carpet weaving began to excel, as carpets and rugs were comissioned for the western market. Persian designs were used, but like Ziegler carpets the designs were generally enlarged to show beautiful palmettes and vines with mainly reds, purples, greens and ivory as the predominant colours.  From the 16th century, during the Mughal Empire carpet weaving was influenced by the Persian weavers which resided in Agra, India.  Designs on Agra carpets vary considerably, but Persian floral motifs from Tabriz and Ziegler were often used.  The British revival in the 19th century bought back the production of oriental rugs after the collapse of the Mughal Empire due to high demand for export.

Dimensions

This object is eligible for a Certificate of BADA Provenance