TRIBUNE NEWS NETWORK - DOHA Sotheby’s has announced that it will auction, among other objects, the Pearl Carpet of Baroda in the Arts of the Islamic World auction here on March 19. The bid floor price is around $5 million, but is expected rise sharply higher, a Sotheby’s release received here on Friday said.

The carpet, one of the most extraordinary masterpieces of its kind ever to come on the market, will form the centrepiece of Sotheby’s inaugural series of auctions in Doha.

The carpet, traditionally believed to have been created as a gift for the tomb of the Prophet Mohammad (PBUH) in Medina, was commissioned by ‘Gaekwad’ Khande Rao, the Maharaja of Baroda.

The intended gift was clearly never delivered as the Maharaja died before he made the donation and the carpet remained in his family, the release said.

Mary Jo Otsea, worldwide director of Rugs and Carpets at Sotheby’s said: “It is fitting that an historic object as magnificent and unique as the Pearl Carpet of Baroda is a major highlight of our inaugural series of auctions in Doha. The carpet has never appeared at auction before and the sale therefore represents an unparalleled opportunity to acquire an extraordinarily significant work of art. I am delighted that collectors of the Middle East will be able to view this stunning work.”

This splendid carpet has a surface that is entirely embellished, created using an estimated two million natural seed pearls, known as “Basra” pearls originally collected in the waters of the Gulf. The design is picked out in coloured glass beads and the whole richly encrusted and embellished with gold set diamonds and precious stones in their hundreds.

The design of the work echoes many of the details found in Safavid and Mughal carpet designs with dense fields of swirling flowering vines that here form a deconstructed series of three Mughal-style arches.

Whilst this commission appears to have been unique, parts of the design reflect 18thcentury India’s fashionable millefleurs motif. Across the centre there are three large round ‘rosettes’ each made of table cut diamonds set in silvered gold. Further smaller diamond rosettes in the border, all of which are embellished with sapphires, rubies and emeralds set in gold.It is widely reported that when he commissioned the work, the Maharaja wanted to create a carpet that would be suitable for the tomb of the Prophet Mohammad (PBUH) in Medina.

These reports suggest that he wanted it to cover the tomb in a way that echoed the tomb of Mughal Empress Mumtaz Mahal in the Taj Mahal. It is also reported that the Maharaja turned to Islam later in his life, but it is no surprise that his death derailed any plans to send the carpet overseas. The work therefore entered the family collection and remained there for over 100 years. The carpet is testament to the splendour and opulence that surrounded the Maharaja and his court.

Exhibited in 1902-03 as a highlight of the great Delhi Exhibition displaying the wealth of the Maharajas, it was later moved to Monaco with Maharani Sita Devi – the ‘most flamboyant Maharani’ – who took the carpet along with her jewellery collection when she moved to the Mediterranean. For the first time in over 80 years the carpet was once again showcased in the 1985 landmark exhibition India at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.