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Lot Essay
The knot count is approximately 9H x 9V per cm. sq.
There is a group of Koum Kapi carpets which share a number of technical features, of which the present carpet is one. All are of unusually large size for the products of Koum Kapi, and none are signed. The designs however are shared between the different carpets in the group, enabling them to be linked. Almost all also have a sage green ground border. A carpet of identical cartoon to the present example, finer woven but of smaller size was sold in these Rooms 13 October 2005, lot 20. The design draws its influence from Persian Safavid ornament which can be seen in a multiple medallion carpet of 'Vase' type, in the Victoria and Albert Museum (Arthur Upham Pope, A Survey ofPersian Art, Oxford, 1938, pp.1236-7).
To these two should certainly be added a carpet that was offered for sale in Sotheby's Dubai that measured 549 x 375cm (Sotheby's Dubai 3-5 December 1985, lot 270). An even larger example in a private collection shares both the field design, on an ivory ground, and the border design and colouring with the present carpet.
The probability is that these are the products of the workshop of Zareh Penyamin. He is known to have worked on a series of large carpets, and there are at least five almost identical yellow ground examples with similarly coloured borders to the present carpet, some of which are signed by Zareh with his typical monogram (see for example one sold in these Rooms20 October 1994, lot 508). Although all five are almost identical in size, technique, design and colouring, some but not all of them bear Zareh's signature, indicating that he did not sign some of his larger carpets. In contrast to the group of yellow ground carpets it is the work in the metal thread flatwoven areas which really sets the group of which the present carpet is an example apart. It is technically spectacular, but even more than that it is the inventiveness of the variations on various known themes and the use of various minor colours that make this carpet stand out as one of the real masterpieces of all Koum Kapi weavings.
There is a group of Koum Kapi carpets which share a number of technical features, of which the present carpet is one. All are of unusually large size for the products of Koum Kapi, and none are signed. The designs however are shared between the different carpets in the group, enabling them to be linked. Almost all also have a sage green ground border. A carpet of identical cartoon to the present example, finer woven but of smaller size was sold in these Rooms 13 October 2005, lot 20. The design draws its influence from Persian Safavid ornament which can be seen in a multiple medallion carpet of 'Vase' type, in the Victoria and Albert Museum (Arthur Upham Pope, A Survey ofPersian Art, Oxford, 1938, pp.1236-7).
To these two should certainly be added a carpet that was offered for sale in Sotheby's Dubai that measured 549 x 375cm (Sotheby's Dubai 3-5 December 1985, lot 270). An even larger example in a private collection shares both the field design, on an ivory ground, and the border design and colouring with the present carpet.
The probability is that these are the products of the workshop of Zareh Penyamin. He is known to have worked on a series of large carpets, and there are at least five almost identical yellow ground examples with similarly coloured borders to the present carpet, some of which are signed by Zareh with his typical monogram (see for example one sold in these Rooms20 October 1994, lot 508). Although all five are almost identical in size, technique, design and colouring, some but not all of them bear Zareh's signature, indicating that he did not sign some of his larger carpets. In contrast to the group of yellow ground carpets it is the work in the metal thread flatwoven areas which really sets the group of which the present carpet is an example apart. It is technically spectacular, but even more than that it is the inventiveness of the variations on various known themes and the use of various minor colours that make this carpet stand out as one of the real masterpieces of all Koum Kapi weavings.