Fragments of a Carpet with Lattice and Blossom Pattern

This carpet represents the highest level of production—imperial grade—made with an extremely fine weave and costly materials. It looks and feels like velvet, but the pile is actually pashmina wool, made from the fleece of Himalayan mountain goats. Its decorative style, with its floral forms, is typical of the Mughal emperor Shah Jahan’s taste, seen also in the architectural ornament and manuscript illumination produced during his reign. These fragments constitute about one quarter of the original carpet, which was over twenty-three feet long, an enormous size for a carpet of this quality.