A Safavid Isfahan Carpet, Central Persia, 17th Century

Vitall Benguiat, New York;

William A. Clark (1839-1925), New York and Montana;

Bequeathed to the Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington D.C.;

Important Carpets from the William A. Clark Collection, Corcoran Gallery of Art, Sotheby's, New York, 5 June 2013, lot 15;

Where acquired by the present collector.

The Corcoran Gallery of Art, Illustrated Handbook of The W. A. Clark Collection, The Corcoran Gallery of Art. Washington, D.C.: W. F. Roberts Company, 1928, p. 73;

"Carpets for the Great Shah: The Near-Eastern Carpets from the W. A. Clark Collection," The Corcoran Gallery of Art Bulletin, Washington, D.C., Vol. 2, No. 1, October 1948, p. 18.

The lively palette in this carpet, where light blues and greens punctuate the design, is similar to that of the former British Rail Pension Fund Isfahan carpet, see Sotheby's London, October 16, 1996, lot 125 and another Isfahan carpet sold in these rooms, December 12, 1997, lot 110. The border of this carpet is virtually identical to that on a carpet from the J. Paul Getty Museum, sold Sotheby's New York, December 8, 1990, lot 4; a rug once in the collection of J. P. Morgan sold here April 10, 1997, lot 114 and a rug in the Museu Nacional de Arte Antiga, Lisbon, see Jessica Hallett, "From the Looms of Yazd and Isfahan," Carpets and Textiles in the Iranian World 1400-1700, Oxford and Genoa, 2010, fig. 12, p. 111.