Page 157 - Yamanaka co Auction catalog

251-ANTIQUE CHINESE CARPET (K'ang-hsi)
A fine fabric in texture, color, proportions and design.
The great quadrilateral field is of a soft acorn-brown,
spread with an all-over decoration of a bold peony scroll
in rich sapphire-blue of remarkable brilliancy and quality.
The peony blossoms are evolved with lines of pale bluet
with centers of dull golden-yellow touched with brown.
Around this field twelve borders maybe counted, includ-
ing several stripes, the principal borders being a bold
swastika-fret in the sapphire and acorn of the field, and a
quietly variegated floral trellis in which small swastikas
appear, while the stripes include old-gold, a rose and
salmon pink, golden-brown and pale turquoise; and sur-
rounding the whole is a broad exterior band of camel's
hair in its natural rich brown. Close, soft, deep pile; over-
cast sides and fringe ends. .
Length, 18 feet 2 inches; width, 9 feet 11 inches.
(Illustrated)

252-GRAND TEMPLE CARPET (K' ang-hsi)
Soft, thick pile and loose texture. The weave is that found
in the great dragon rug at the Metropolitan Museum of
Art. The quadrangular field is an extraordinary rich dark
yellow of orange quality, with a golden-tawny sheen. Its
ornamentation is exclusively medallions, no less than sixty-
eight of them, formed of flowers of paradise and scrolls,
being worked in a brilliant, glowing sapphire-blue, rich
salmon, pale old-gold, and white. A narrow border of
T-fret in brown on pale yellow, enclosed within stripes,
separates the field from a broader border of richest chest-
nut, in which thirty-two more medallions are worked in a
lighter shade, these medallions in the archaic dragon-scroll
motive. Outside this is a salmon border dotted with small
floral medallions, this being succeeded by a broad boundary
band of camel's-hair in its natural rich brown color. Fringe
ends and overcast sides.
Length, 24 feet 10 inches; 'width, 15 feet 8 inches.
(Illustrated)