Threads across empires: Why a 17th century Mughal carpet hangs in a London Guild Hall

Girdlers’ carpet, manufactured in the 17th century by artisans of the Mughal Empire, is no ordinary piece of furnishing. It was commissioned by Robert Bell, an influential merchant and one of the founding directors of the English East India Company, as a gift for the Worshipful Company of Girdlers during his final tenure as its Master in 1634.

Active since the medieval period, the Company of Girdlers specialised in the manufacture of girdles, belts, and associated metal works and received its patent from Edward III in 1327.

The thread of Girdler’s carpet bears the imprint of a chequered past: arduously procured from Lahore, it travelled many miles from Surat to reach London in 1634, where it served as a table covering in the courtroom hall of the Company of Girdlers.

Even though the hall was consumed by the Great Fire of 1666, the carpet was saved by the presence of mind of its caretaker. It would later endure the Blitz of 1940-’41, the sustained campaign of aerial bombing of London and other British cities during the Second World War.

Between these two brushes with destruction, the carpet was given a new lease of life in 1899.

On the advice of the director of the Victoria and...

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