Holbein carpet are a type of Ottoman

Ottoman Empire

The Ottoman EmpireIt was usually referred to as the "Ottoman Empire", the "Turkish Empire", the "Ottoman Caliphate" or more commonly "Turkey" by its contemporaries...

 carpets taking their name from Hans Holbein the Younger

Hans Holbein the Younger

Hans Holbein the Younger was a German artist and printmaker who worked in a Northern Renaissance style. He is best known as one of the greatest portraitists of the 16th century. He also produced religious art, satire and Reformation propaganda, and made a significant contribution to the history...

, due to their depiction in European Renaissance paintings

Oriental carpets in Renaissance painting

Carpets of Middle-Eastern origin, either from the Ottoman Empire, Armenia, Azerbaijan, the Levant or the Mamluk state of Egypt or Northern Africa, were used as important decorative features in paintings from the 14th century onwards...

. Actually, these in fact are seen in paintings from many decades earlier than Holbein, and are sub-divided into four types (of which Holbein actually only painted two); they are the commonest designs of Anatolia

Anatolia

Anatolia is a geographic and historical term denoting the westernmost protrusion of Asia, comprising the majority of the Republic of Turkey...

n carpet seen in Western Renaissance paintings, and continued to be produced for a long period. All are purely geometric and use a variety of arrangements of lozenge

Lozenge

A lozenge , often referred to as a diamond, is a form of rhombus. The definition of lozenge is not strictly fixed, and it is sometimes used simply as a synonym for rhombus. Most often, though, lozenge refers to a thin rhombus—a rhombus with acute angles of 45°...

s, crosses and octagonal motifs within the main field. The sub-divisions are between:

• Type I: Small-pattern Holbein. The motifs are small, and usually of several different types that recur regularly.
• Type II: now more often called Lotto carpet
  Lotto carpet
  A Lotto carpet is a hand knotted carpet having a pattern that was primarily produced during the 16th and 17th centuries along the Aegean coast of Anatolia, Turkey, but also copied in various parts of Europe. It is characterized by a lacy arabesque, usually in yellow on a red ground, often with...
  
  s.
• Type III: Large-pattern Holbein. The motifs in the field inside the border are large squares filled with decoration, placed regularly, with narrow strips between them containing no "gul
  Gul (design)
  A gul is a medallion-like design element typical of traditional hand-woven carpets associated with Central and West Asia. They usually feature either twofold rotational symmetry or left/right reflection symmetry. Some are octagonal, or suggest approximations of octagons...
  
  " motifs. The carpet in Holbein's The Ambassadors
  The Ambassadors (Holbein)
  The Ambassadors is a painting by Hans Holbein the Younger in the National Gallery, London. As well as being a double portrait, the painting contains a still life of several meticulously rendered objects, the meaning of which is the cause of much debate...
  
  is of this type.
• Type IV: Large-pattern Holbein. The square compartments have octagons or other "gul
  Gul (design)
  A gul is a medallion-like design element typical of traditional hand-woven carpets associated with Central and West Asia. They usually feature either twofold rotational symmetry or left/right reflection symmetry. Some are octagonal, or suggest approximations of octagons...
  
  " motifs from the small-pattern types between them.

Holbein frequently used carpets in portraits, on tables for most sitters, but on the floor for Henry VIII

Henry VIII of England

Henry VIII was King of England from 21 April 1509 until his death. He was Lord, and later King, of Ireland, as well as continuing the nominal claim by the English monarchs to the Kingdom of France...

.