Lahori Pictorial Carpet in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.
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Technical DataTable and other carpets Bespoke Lotto |
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This carpet is particularly interesting because it seems to mark a radical departure from the carpets that were made till that time. Iranian animal/pictorial carpet designs consisted essentially of scattered, one might even say disassociated hunting and/or animal combat scenes which had little or no relation to each other so that the carpet design remains a "design". These mughal carpets on the other hand are more like miniature paintings or book illustrations that attempt to realize a unified pictorial/anecdotal theme or concept. This is perhaps one of the more important mughal innovations in the field of carpet design. The border too has its intriguing features: chinese style birds and shah abbasi palmettes which have at their centre grotesque masks strongly reminiscent of Kathakali dancers of south India. There are excellent close-ups of these features at the Museum of Fine Arts web site. The colours in the picture of the whole carpet, as shown on the Museum of Fine Arts web site, seem rather dull in comparison to those in the close-ups. Pictures published in various carpet books are even duller. As you can see it is not just a matter of resolution. It has even been suggested that perhaps the carpet was cleaned before the close-ups were taken. The only other mughal carpet, that we know of, with the mythical gaja-simha in combat with several elephants is a fragment which we had occasion to restore some years back. More about that here. In accordance with the clients wishes our reproduction will be woven in size 5' x 8' approx. with a knotting density of 17 x17 per sq inch. The main dye-stuffs used will be: Lac dye, Madder root, Gul-e-tesu, Isparak, Walnut rind and Indigo. |
| From the close-ups
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UPDATE On the loom.
Mannam Carpets Copyright © 2011 Tariq Habib Mirza |