Page 156 - 2021 April 1, ART OF THE ISLAMIC AND Indian Worlds Including Oriental Rugs, Christie's London

The documented fragments of this carpet are housed in various institutions
including, the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, the Musée du Louvre,
Paris (inv. no.10556), the Museum für Islamische Kunst, Berlin, formerly in
the Friedrich Sarre Collection, the Kunstindutriemuseet, Copenhagen, the
Burrell Collection, Glasgow, the State Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg,
the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, the Musée Historique des Tissus, Lyons
(inv.no.28.153), the Museum of Islamic Art, Doha, formerly in the collection
of Colonel Norman Colville which sold in these Rooms, 25 April 2002, lot 76
and the Alice de Rothschild fragment that sold in Christie’s London, 19 April,
2016, lot 100.
The present fragment aligns, through the apricot split-palmette in the
upper right-hand corner, with the apricot palmette in the lower left-hand
corner of the Rothschild section. The narrow segment of the border on the
left hand side on our example is just sufficient to indicate that it aligns with
the border section now in Copenhagen and the top left hand corner ajoins
the field section of the fragment in the Louvre. In addition, through the
horizontal tan and apricot abrash that splices the lower left-hand palmette
on the present lot, we can confirm that our fragment is the opposing
section of the carpet to that in the Musée Historique des Tissus, Lyon,
which bears the same palmette with an identical abrash. The presence of
a similarly decorated part-vase on the extreme left of our fragment and
the extreme right of the Lyon section further demonstrates the twinned
symmetry of the overall design.
The discovery of the Colville fragment, which sold in Christie’s London,
crucially gives the resolution in the centre of the carpet. This is demonstrated
by the main border design on the left of the fragment which shows the carpet
to have had a specific design in the centre similar to the corner resolution.
This feature, of a specific break in the centre of the otherwise flowing border
design, is extremely rare in Safavid carpet design. The Rothschild fragment
is key to our understanding of the overall design, in that it is the only one
of the known fragments that clearly illustrates the symmetry of the design
that is mirrored along the central vertical axis. Each huge bold polychrome
palmette, flowering blossom and serrated leaf is harmoniously balanced with
another on each side of the field. The bold indigo palmette that is placed at
the centre sits on the primary blue stemmed lattice where the large-scale
palmettes or flowerheads sit proudly upright. The discovery of this section
and the Rothschild fragment illustrate how all of the fragments correspond
proving further the unlikelihood that these fragments were once part of a
pair of near identical large carpets rather than a single much larger carpet,
a theory first considered by Christine Klose in 1999 at the International
Conference on Oriental Carpets in Milan.
Interestingly, the condition of the present lot is very similar to that of the
Rothschild fragment which was widely considered to be the best amongst
all of the documented fragments to date. Much of the surface remains in
impressively high pile with a soft-textured wool and a rich palette of colours,
which are used in playful contrast with one another to create a hypnotic
kaleidoscope of pattern. The notable absence of any known part of the
central section of the carpet and the irregular shape of the Berlin section,
may suggest that significant areas of the carpet were too heavily damaged to
save. The present section is extremely fortunate in that it remains beautifully
balanced in design and proportion and includes all of the salient aspects of
the design, including not one but two vases where others have none. Through
its complex design and skilful play of colour, the audience is transported to a
garden of Paradise in which we are viewing a private enclosure that joins the
realms of heaven and earth. This carpet fragment provides further evidence
to support the theory that the weavers of Kirman in the 17th century were
the most inventive and influential of all carpet designers in the history of the
Persian carpet.

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