A silk and metal-thread embroidered floor spread, India, probably Deccan, circa 1800

Once thought to have been produced in Goa or labelled ‘Indo-Portuguese’ due to their export to Europe via the port at Goa, richly embroidered textiles such as the present floor spread have since been reattributed to the Deccan. Textiles of the group share a palette of vibrant pink, forest green and golden yellow, whose brilliant colours contrast against a shimmering metal-thread ground (Cohen 2015, p.48). The quality and palette of the present lot is comparable to a panel with a medallion design sold at Christie’s, London, 24 October 2019, lot 154 and another in the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts (inv. no.95.79).

This radiant example features a central field with an overall lattice design formed of interlacing leaves. The embroiderer has achieved a wonderful sense of vitality and movement to the textile, the swirling leaves reminiscent of rippling water, heightened by the soft touches of blue. An example with a comparably arranged field is held in the collection of the Topkapi Palace Museum, although that example is woven in a narrow format with two columns of flowerheads in the lattice (Tezcan and Okumura 2007, pp.164-5, no.53). The palace records note that the Topkapi Palace floor cover was spread before a throne indicating the high regard that textiles of this quality commanded (ibid., p.164).