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Country of Origin: Persia/Iran Isfahan
Date of Origin
Use: carpet
JBOC Comments:
Description:
RUGS AND CARPETS
Sale L04761 lot 68
AN
ISFAHAN WOOL AND METAL THREAD RUG, CENTRAL PERSIA
London, New Bond Street 50,000—80,000 GBP
Session 1
11 Oct 04 2:00 PM
Lot Sold. Hammer Price with Buyer's Premium:
60,000 GBP
approximately 274 by 146cm., 9ft. by 4ft. 9in.
17th century
TECHNICAL ANALYSIS
Warp: cotton, Z4S, natural ivory, alternate warps
slightly depressed
Weft: cotton, Z2S, pale madder, 3 shoots
Pile: wool, Z2Sw, asymmetrical knot open to the
left
Density: 5 horizontal/cm; 5 vertical/cm.
Sides: 2 cords, each of 4 warps plied, wrapped in
crimson wool
Ends: each with approximately 2cm. kelim, banded
with 2 shoots soft madder cotton; 2 shoots walnut
wool; 5 shoots dark saffron wool; 1 shoot walnut
wool; the balance multiple shoots soft madder
cotton
Colours: ivory, dark saffron, light golden
madder, crimson, sky blue, aqua green, emerald
green, royal blue, walnut, dark walnut (some
corrosion), very dark forest green
Brocading: later silver coloured metal thread
wound on an ivory silk core, 4 strands brocaded
over 3 weft shoots; traces of original metal
thread brocading over warp threads visible
beneath
CATALOGUE NOTE
The apparently previously unpublished lot offered
here presents an intriguing link between the
small Isfahan palmette and vine rugs and the
so-called ‘Polonaise’ group of silk and
metal thread rugs, also produced in Isfahan
during the 17th century.
Structurally, this lot is not related to the wool
pile and metal thread brocaded Persian Court
carpets of the 16th and 17th centuries, which are
typically silk warped and wefted, see for
example: Wearden, Jennifer, Oriental Carpets and
their Structure, V&A, London, 2003, pl.27, p.
44 and p.127 (Inv.No. T77-1919). However, small
Isfahan rugs with both cotton warps are wefts are
known, see Sotheby’s New York, 10 April
1997, lot 114; the ‘Polonaise’ group is
woven with cotton warps and three weft shoots,
the first and third in cotton, the second in
silk, usually madder.
The design of this rug is most closely linked to
that of the ‘Polonaise’ rugs, for
example that in the collection of the Dukes of
Buccleuch, Inv.No.9 illustrated in Beattie, May
H., Carpets of Central Persia, World of Islam
Festival Publishing Co.Ltd., 1976, Fig.5a, p.41.
The Buccleuch rug and the lot offered here share
the same skeletal quatrefoil medallion formed of
split rumi leaves, centred by a lobed flower head
with simple radiating ‘stamens’ to the
centre. The field design of both pieces is
composed of a subliminally endless repeat of
interlacing cartouches formed by bi-planar
arcaded vines edged with cloud scrolls and with
cloud volutes at the intersections. The form of
these cartouches is derived from the
compartmentalised garden carpet design, seen for
example in the carpet formerly in the collection
of Albert Figdor, illustrated in Sarre, F. and
Trenkwald, H., Old Oriental Carpets, Vienna &
Leipzig, 1926-9 as pl.12, Vol.II, dated to the
first half of the 16th century. For two other
examples of ‘Polonaise’ rugs with
related arcaded compartment and vinery fields,
see Sarre, op.cit., pl.25, Vol.I and pl.44,
Vol.II, from the collection of John D.
Rockefeller Junior. The compartments created by
the use of the overlaid arcading in the
‘Polonaise’ rugs are usually coloured
separately, creating a ‘jigsaw’ effect
in the field. Conversely, the present lot has the
plain crimson ground usually associated with
Isfahan wool rugs.
This rug shares some other design characteristics
with the small Isfahan rugs, for example the use
of bright ivory vine scrolls, narrowly edged in
dark brown, in two planes, providing a sparkling
contrast to the crimson field; both the
Sotheby’s lot cited above and the piece
offered here benefit from their outstanding
condition to clearly illustrate the intended
effect. The partial cloudbands which radiate from
the central medallion are also drawn in a way
typical of Isfahan wool rugs, for example see
Sotheby’s, op.cit. The use of an intense
blue-green for the border, which strongly frames
the field, is a classic device in the Isfahan
palmette and vine rugs, unlike the borders of the
‘Polonaise’ group which are tonally
closer to the field (and also often
parti-coloured). However, like the
‘Polonaise’ group, elements of the
design are highlighted with metal thread
brocading; when first produced, the bright silver
of the brocade would have providing a glittering
foil to the crimson ground and visually linked
the ivory vine scrolls. The designer clearly
intended this, as the slender vines within the
medallion, which radiate from the central flower
head, are contrastingly coloured crimson.
Therefore, in design, in structure and in
materials the present lot is transitional between
the classic canons of both the
‘Polonaise’ and the Isfahan wool rug
workshops, raising intriguing questions about
both the physical and artistic relationships
between the two types of weaving.
There is some corrosion to the dark browns, but
otherwise the wool pile of this piece is in
exceptional condition. The original metal thread
brocading is partially extant beneath the later
couched metal thread; the areas which are
brocaded are true to the original. Rarely, the
original side and end finishes are also extant.
Seen on www.Sothebys.com
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Oriental Rugs the O'Connell
Notes
Copyright Barry
O'Connell 2004 - 2007
Last revised: October 05, 2009.
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