The Pearl Carpet of Baroda

Doha, Qatar: Sotheyby's, 2009. Paperback. Fine. Color-illustrated wraps with white lettering on gold spine. 52 pp. full of color images. Text in English with some Arabic. A beautiful catalogue from the auction, held 19 March 2009, of the exquisite Pearl Carpet of Baroda, Lot 401 of a larger sale. Includes excellent historical information and archival photos, a glossary, and color photos of the detail in this masterpiece. With some Arabic text; otherwise in English. "The rectangular-shaped pearl carpet has a length of 2.64 meters (8 ft. 8 ins) and a width of 1.73 meters (5ft. 8 ins.), and is made of a combination of silk and deer hide. The carpet is densely embroidered, with its design picked out in colored glass beads, and the spaces filled entirely with an estimated 1.5 to 2.0 million natural seed pearls, known as "Basra Pearls" measuring approximately 1-3 mm and harvested in the southern Gulf region along the coasts of Qatar and Bahrain. The design of the carpet seems to have been inspired by the carpet designs of the Safavid period of Iran and the Mughal period of India, with dense fields of swirling flowering vines. Across the center of the carpet there are three large round "rosettes", placed symmetrically. The center of the rosettes are filled with large table-cut and occasional rose-cut diamonds, and are surrounded by strings of natural "Basra Pearls" slightly larger in size (3-4 mm) than the seed pearls found predominantly in other regions of the carpet. The diamonds are set in silver-topped gold or possibly blackened gold. The motifs are further enhanced with foil-backed rubies, emeralds and sapphires set in gold. Smaller diamond rosettes, 32 in all and embellished with sapphires, rubies and emeralds set in gold, are placed right round the border of the carpet. In between the smaller diamond rosettes, are found still smaller rosettes centered around a ruby and surrounded by eight other rubies, all surrounded by strings of seed pearls. The total estimated weight of the pearls is 30,000 carats. The total number of table-cut diamonds in the rosettes is approximately 2,520, having a total weight of around 350 to 400 carats. The number of cabochon rubies in the carpet are over 1,000 and Colombian emeralds over 600.