Page 281 - ART OF THE ISLAMIC AND INDIAN WORLDS Carpets, Ceramics Objects, Christie's London Oct..27, 2022

LITERATURE: PROPERTY FROM THE JAMES D. BURNS COLLECTION
HALI 56, p.87
Michael Franses and Hans König, Glanz der ■*272
Himmelssohne, Kaiserliche Teppiche Aus China A NINGXIA DAIS COVER
1400-1750, London, 2005, pl. 8, p.68 NORTH CHINA, KANGXI PERIOD (1662-1722)
Woven horizontally, overall very good condition
It is highly probable that the carpet from which
4ft.4in. x 10ft.3in. (133cm. X 312cm.)
this fragment came was woven in the same
Imperial Beijing carpet workshops as the large £15,000-20,000 US$18,000-23,000
€18,000-23,000
Wanli palace carpets, such as the carpet sold at
Christie’s New York, 11 December 2014, lot 8 and
the Imperial 'Dragon' Throne carpet in Christie's PROVENANCE:
Skinners, Boston, 30th April 2018, lot 89
Paris, 23 November 2021, lot 224. The present
carpet was probably intended for use in one of the
This strikingly lustrous Chinese carpet displays
Imperial palaces and although we cannot get any
eight floral roundels, each centered with a shou
sense of what the field design might have been,
(longevity) symbol, on a faint diagonal swastika
what is unmistakable from the scale of the border
lattice ground upon which there are stylised bats
and the elegance of the design is that this would
and flowers. The reign of the Kangxi Emperor
have been a very impressive carpet indeed. The
(1662-1722) was a period of great achievement
design of the main border is an attractive lattice
for all the arts, and carpets woven during this
made up of a repeating pattern of four joined cloud
period are celebrated for their harmony and
bands and is a design found in Wanli carpets and
proportion both in coloration and size. Woven
in wall decoration in the Palace Museum, Beijing.
for both the Imperial court and nobility, Qing
Similarly, the stripe of meandering alternating
dynasty rugs were often made for a specific place
peonies is found in the borders of a number of
or function. Based on the use of the symbolic
carpets in the Palace Museum collection (Liu
motifs and its rectangular format, this carpet
Baojian and Yuan Hongqi, Carpets in the Collection
was most probably made as a dais or throne
of the Palace Museum, Beijing, 2010, pp. 34, 48,
platform (kang) cover that typically would have
55, 58). In the note accompanying the present lot
been reserved for an important guest within a
in Glanz der Himmelssohne, Kaiserliche Teppiche
palace or placed within a temple. In her article
Aus China 1400-1750 the author states that
on Chinese temple rugs (HALI 194, pp.662-75),
another border fragment from the same carpet as
Sandra Whitman has proposed that altar rugs
the present lot is in a private collection in Lugano
were placed across the altar and not along the
(Michael Franses and Hans König, ibid., London,
top. A closely related example, displaying eight
2005, pl.52, p.68).
similar lotus roundels on a geometric ground,
which had formerly been in a mid-western
Avery Brundage (1887-1975) was a renowned
museum collection, was exhibited with Alberto
Chicago industrialist and the fifth president of the
Levi, 'Hunting and Gathering: China, Tibet and
International Olympic Committee. He started to
East Turkestan', 2017, Milan, (HALI, Issue 185,
collect Asian art in 1939, having been inspired by
p.112, fig.1).
an exhibition of Chinese Art at the Royal Academy
London, and over the course of thirty five years
amassed one of the finest private collections of
PROPERTY FROM THE JAMES D. BURNS COLLECTION Asian art. In 1959 Brundage promised part of
his collection to the City of San Francisco if they
■*271
would build a museum to house it. The museum
PROVENANCE:
AN IMPERIAL CHINESE CARPET BORDER With Avery Brundage, San Francisco, by 1960, and was constructed as an additional wing of the de
FRAGMENT donated to the Asian Art Museum San Francisco Young Museum and opened in 1966. By the end
PROBABLY BEIJING, NORTH CHINA, EARLY (de-accessioned in the 1960s) of his life Brundage had donated nearly 8,000
17TH CENTURY
Mrs Gwen Rutherford, Glendale Asian art objects to the City of San Francisco—all
Full pile, a few minute cobbled repairs, bound on all James and Stephanie Burns, Seattle housed at the Asian Art Museum. In 2003 the
four sides, overall very good condition Asian Art Museum moved to its own building and
5ft.11in. x 3ft.7in. (178cm. x 107cm.) EXHIBITED:
San Francisco Asian Art Museum, 6th the collection stands at more than 17,000 objects,
£7,000-9,000 US$8,100-10,000 International Conference of Oriental Carpets, making it the largest museum in the United States
€8,100-10,000 November 1990 devoted exclusively to the arts of Asia.
278 In addition to the hammer price, a Buyer’s Premium (plus VAT) is payable. Other taxes and/or an Artist Resale Royalty
fee are also payable if the lot has a tax or λ symbol. Check Section D of the Conditions of Sale at the back of this catalogue.