A border cartouche from one of the pair of Ardabil Medallion Carpets
c. 1539–1540
Central Persia, Probably Qazvin
67 x 43.1 cm at widest points, mounted on a stretcher measuring 83.2 x 59.2 cm; Wool pile on silk foundation, undyed silk warp, 2S piled; undyed silk weft, Z spun, 3 shoot; asymmetric wool knotting, Z spun, open to the left; knot count: V/H cm: 8–9/10–11; the wefts running across the narrower dimension of the fragment.
This carpet fragment features a near-complete cartouche from the border of the Ardabil Medallion Carpet – perhaps the most famous carpet in the world. The pair of Ardabil carpets are significant for a number of reasons: the extremely fine quality of the carpet’s weave and design, its historical significance in Safavid Persia and related dated inscription that reads: ‘Except for thy threshold, there is no refuge for me in all the world. Except for this door there is no resting-place for my head. The work of the slave of the portal, Maqsud Kashani’.
Provenance:
The Ardabil Shrine, c. 1539–1540
Ziegler & Co., London, purchased from the shrine via local agents in Ardabil, c. 1886;
Vincent Robinson and Co., London, by late December 1891
Removed from the border of the Ardabil carpet now in the Los Angeles County Museum of Art c. 1900;
Collection of Victor Afia (1908-1992), who purchased it locally in Oxford, where he had an antique carpet and textiles shop at 58 Oxford High St, by 1940;
Thence by descent
