The Pearl Carpet of Baroda

The Pearl Carpet of Baroda has often been called “the most luxurious carpet ever made.” It was commissioned in 1865 by the Maharaja Gaekwar Khande Rao. Allthough Khande Rao was a Hindu, he had Muslim subjects, which might be part of the reason he wanted to gift this carpet to the tomb of Mohammed in Medina, Saudi Arabia, along with four other sumptuous objects, including a Pearl Canopy.

But the items never left Baroda. When Khande Rao died in 1870, work stopped and the pieces passed down to his descendants.

After being auctioned by Sotheby’s in 2009, the Pearl Carpet of Baroda was acquired by the National Museum of Qatar, which conserved the carpet and published detailed photos online such as the photo at left.

Experts estimate that some 1.5 million pearls are stitched to the carpet’s deerskin ground, along wth rubies, emeralds, sapphires and diamonds set in gold bezels. Venetian glass beads in shades of pink, red, blue and green brighten the carpet - which will surely never be walked upon.