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Historian Dorothy Armstrong looks at three fascinating carpets from the V&A’s collection and their roles in history: the celebrated 16th century Ardabil, a 19th century rug made by British prisoners under the British Raj, and a 20th century fake of an illustrious Schwarzenberg carpet. All three feature in her new book about the relationship between rugs and power, Threads of Empire: A History of the World in Twelve Carpets. She tells the spellbinding stories of how these textiles and more passed through history with its personalities, politics, drama and conspiracies.
