PROBABLY SOUTH CAUCASUS, LATE 18TH CENTURY

This carpet relates to a small group of 18th century carpets which have been widely attributed to both North West Persia and the Caucasus. They derive their designs from early Safavid carpets and are woven with a variety of structures which means that they do not fit easily into a single homogenous group. Nineteen examples from this group were published and discussed at some length by Ian Bennett ('Animal and Tree Carpets, an Amorphous Group', Hali 73, pp.91-99) where he divides them into seven sub groups. The present lot is closely related to two of the examples in group B as identified by Bennett; the Milan carpet in the Freiberger collection (Bennett, op.cit, fig.9) and the Bechirian rug, now in the Thyssen-Bornemisza collection (Friedrich Sphuler, The Thyssen-Bornemisza Collection, Carpets and Textiles, London, 1998, no.35, pp.144-5). Both of those carpets have a charming naivety with dense designs full of animals, birds and flowers although both the Freiberger and the Thyssen carpets bear animal combat groups which our carpet does not. Whilst the animals on the Thyssen carpet are arranged in unidirectional rows, the animals on both our carpet and the Freiburger carpet are arranged in a multi-directional formation, with ours having a more playful placeful of the motifs and a greater sense of movement very unlike the preceding period of workshop production. The paired birds on our carpet bear similarities with two other Group B carpets; the Baltimore carpet, whose whereabouts is unknown, (Bennett, op.cit. fig 5, p.94) and the Oakland Carpet, Web Hill Collection, California, (Bennett, op.cit. fig.10). However, whilst our carpet bears many similarities to the Group B carpets as outlined by Bennett, it appears to be unique amongst the group of animal carpets as a whole, in its omission of any form of central vertical axis.