A Safavid silk and metal thread brocade fragment, Central Persia,

the gilt metal herringbone brocade ground with polychrome and silver metal thread flowers, vinery and foliage

The design of this richly coloured fragment is closely paralleled in a fragment from the Metropolitan Museum of Art, illustrated in Pope, A.U., A Survey of Persian Art, Volume XI, Textiles, Ashiya, 1981, pl.1073B, and attributed by Pope to Kashan. Although not identical, the drawing of the roses and of the leaves in particular and the device of a decorated continuous ascending undulating stem, infrequently seen in Safavid textiles of this period, together with the scale of the repeat (268mm. approximately in the offered lot; 311mm. in the Metroplitan example) laid on a gilded metal thread herringbone ground makes it probable they are from the hand of the same artist weaver or workshop.