Sultanate lampas silk

This remarkably fine silk in-weave textile design depicts alternating registers of fantastic creatures framed by an ogival lattice grid. A row of golden yellow creatures resembling winged lions attacked by another leonine creature, alternate with a row of cartouches each showing an inverted elephant held aloft in the jaws of a bird of prey. Both registers are bracketed by a vine and flower lattice-work grid that gives structure to the design; the tapering ogives terminate in a four-petalled flower bloom.

The stylistic mix evident in this textile is as complex as the iconography of the creatures depicted. It remains unclear when and where they were made. The weight of evidence currently points to Sultanate Bengal, with the mosque architecture of 15th century Gaur and mid-16th century Sultanate manuscript painting providing analogous expressions of this aesthetic. This textile was likely repurposed to serve as part of a Tibetan thangka mounting, which inadvertently ensured its survival.