IMAGE DETAILS

The Lady Baillie Mughal shrub carpet, northern India, mid-17th century. 1.72 x 3.40m (11'2" x 5'8"). Sotheby's London, 20 September 2006, lot 40, estimate £40,000-60,000

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11 September 2006

Due to pressure of sales in their Bond Street rooms, Sotheby's autumn 2006 sale of carpets has been moved from its traditional time slot during London's October Islamic week, in favour of an earlier date on 20 September. Whether separating it from the other houses' efforts will be an advantage or a drawback remains to be seen. In any event, Jackie Coulter has again succeeded in putting together a good looking sale, with many lots seemingly being offered at rather more accessible estimates than in some recent SLO carpet auctions.

The Lady Baillie mid-17th century Mughal shrub carpet from Leeds Castle in Kent (see HALI 31, p.34), which was withdrawn before the equivalent sale a year ago, appears this time as lot 40, estimated at £40-80,000, and is illustrated in detail on both front and back of the catalogue cover. Almost certainly originally part of one of the well-known shaped carpet pairs, it has at some point in its illustrious history been reconfigured into a rectangular shape. Although worn, this is an early phase Mughal carpet of great beauty and historical importance.

The sale includes several other classical pieces, among them a charming assortment of carpet fragments (Ushak, Lotto, Esfahan) and 'Coptic' textiles from the estate of the late Professor Charles McCombie (lots 1 and 2), which were bought either from Penny Oakley at Bernheimer Fine Arts in London in the late 1980s, or from Lefevre and Partners earlier that decade. Then there is a beautiful Cairene Ottoman border fragment, lot 42, estimated at £5,000-8,000, a very worn fragment of a Cairene medallion rug, lot 43, which has been cleverly patchworked into a prayer rug format (£3,500-4,500), and two 17th century red-ground Esfahan in-and-out palmette design carpets: lot 41, a very worn fragment (£2,500-3,500), and lot 240, a huge, damaged and heavily replied carpet, over seven metres long, which in our estimation at least, could just as easily be Indian as Persian (£60-80,000).

Continuing in classical vein, lot 114 is a handsome jufti-knotted Khorasan fragment (£3,000-5000), formerly in the Christopher Alexander Collection, which last appeared at CLO on 15 October 1998, while lot 115 is a colourful and good looking 18th century Caucasian Dragon carpet variant (£16-20,000), last sold by Rippon Boswell in Basel in 1978. Last but but no means least among the early carpet material are two 17th century jufti-knotted Khorasan weavings. The first is lot 223, a well-known member of the 'shrub' carpet group discussed by Christine Klose in HALI 128. Published in 1949 by Albert Achdjian, this substantially reduced carpet was top lot in SLO's Rossi Estate sale in March 1999, making for £53,200 (HALI 104, p.119). This time it is estimated at only £10-15,000, but really should make much more. The second, also an ex-Rossi piece (lot 228, estimate£6,000-9,000) is a yellow-ground lattice carpet, which in 1999 was catalogued as a mid-19th century Azerbaijan carpet. Now, due to structural considerations it is boldly, and probably correctly, reassigned to eastern Persia.

Other likely highlights include lot 3, a beautiful pair of Jaff Kurd bags from the McCombie estate (estimate £1,200-1,800), which were acquired from David Black in the early 1980s, and lot 23, a spectacular, densely embroidered Uzbek suzani with a loose and flowing interpretation of the classic Herati pattern (estimate £5,000-8000). Distinguished provenance (the late Donald King, the much loved Keeper of Textiles at the V&A during the 1980s) should guarantee that a beautiful Swedish röllakan cover, dated 1813, should do far better than its modest £3,000-5,000 estimate. Another flatweave, this time a superb Sehna prayer kilim, lot, 58, may look a little expensive in today's market at £12,000-15,000, but it is of great quality.

Elsewhere, the sale includes a good number of handsome 19th century Caucasians, a pack of so called 'Mohtashem' Kashans, good Kum Kapis, a very good looking Gansu with a small round medallion on an abrashed red field (lot 147, estimate £18-25,000), and a full complement of 19th century Persian Revival decorative carpets for the international furnishings market, including an ivory ground allover lattice design Mahal from Ullriksdal Castle in Sweden (lot 172, £30-50,000). In fact, something for almost everyone barring Turkmen lovers, whose pulses are unlikely to be set racing by anything on offer here.