Fine Bakhtiari Garden Rug with Inscriptions
197 x 155 cm (6' 6" x 5' 1")
Persia, dated 1324 (1906)
Condition: very good, mostly good pile, both kilim ends minimally incomplete
Inscriptions: "ordered by excellency Mr. Nasir Khan Sarem al-Molk; may his rule and fortune continue; produced by Bakhtiari, year 1324"
Compare: HALI No. 43, p. 44
Warp: wool, weft: wool, pile: wool

This vibrant carpet is almost identical in style and inscription to another garden design carpet published in HALI 43 (plate 7, from an Austrian collection) in Ian Bennett's definitive survey of Bakhtiari khan carpets. This carpet has three rows across the field rather than four as appear in the previously published example.
The inscriptions say that these were made to the order of the Honourable, Most Noble His Excellency Nasir Khan Saram al-Molk and "may your fortune be great the work of [the] Bakhtiari 1906/07".
Nasir Khan was a powerful political character in the Iran at the time, becoming governor of the Esfahan and the later the Bakhtiari Ilkhan or chief by crica 1916.
The fact that this is the secoind carpet with this design and inscriiption to appear is an interesting evidence that suites were made of the carpets and that both have survived in good condition for over a hundred years. The white ground, elongated cartoouche border is paryticularly beautiful.