A SAFAVID SILK AND SILVER THREAD LAMPAS PANEL IRAN, SECOND HALF 16TH CENTURY

The metal-thread ground woven with cream, blue, green, pink and brown silk threads in a repeated pattern of a richly dressed standing noble with kneeling attendant proffering pomegranates against a foliate background with blossoming trees and flowering shrubs, areas of slight wear, mounted and glazed. 55 by 77 cm.

CATALOGUE NOTE A 16th century lampas silk panel with a design from the same cartoon on a golden ground is in the State Hermitage Musuem, (Iran in the Hermitage, exhibition catalogue, St Petersburg, 2004, p.162, no.203). A second panel of the same lampas as that was in the Kelekian collection (A. U. Pope, A Survey of Persian Art, Oxford, 1938, pl.1013A). The general subject of a noble and attendant is also known in another variant. A Safavid silk and gold brocade, Persia, from the Rosenborg Palace Collection, Copenhagen depicts a child offering a flower to his prince; the ground is filled with foliage, flowers and exotic birds, (Hali, Issue 35, 1987, London, p.65). A smaller fragment from the same textile was sold in Sotheby's, London, Arts of the Islamic World, 5 April 2006, lot 125.