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If you missed your chance to see the $5.5 Million 'pearl carpet of Baroda'...
To begin, we just want to say how exciting it is when we see Museums, Retailers or even Collectors using social networking tools such as Facebook. Such is the case on how we found out about the New exhibition for 2009 at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London. Maharaja: The Spendour of India's Royal Courts. It's open from October 10, 2009 through January 17th, 2010.
Which brings us to....
One of the items we found interesting (seen right). If you missed your opportunity to see the Pearl Carpet of Baroda in person (Sotheby's Doha, Qatar March), this is your chance to see a very similar piece.
Dated at 1865, also commissioned by Maharaja Khanderao Gaekwad of Baroda, both examples feature pearls, rubies, emeralds, diamonds, deerskin and silk. The example sold at Sotheby's (similar to the one currently on display at the V&A museum seen right and bottom) went for a hammer price of nearly $5.5 million.
Technically, these may be considered as 'canopys.' Perhaps semantics. It would be a misdeed to walk on these. However, rugs incorporating precious metals and stones have
been noted by historians. One, in particular, is the Persian Carpet
called "The Spring of Khosrow" from 6th century AD. This too featured
precious metals and stones. Measuring considerably larger than the
Baroda carpet, legend has it the carpet was cut up into many pieces
after an Arab invasion and sold off by soldiers piece by piece.
Sources:
http://www.vam.ac.uk
http://www.vam.ac.uk/microsites/maharaja/highlights/princely-india.html#
Currently rated 5.0 by 1 people - Currently 5/5 Stars.
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