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Lot Essay
The knot count is approximately 7V x 6H per cm. sq.
The Silk Road settlement town of Kashgar in the Xinjiang province of East Turkestan, was an important trading post and centre of textile manufacture for centuries, and carpet fragments have been discovered there as far back as the 3rd century A.D. It is little wonder that with China to the west, Persia to the east and India to the south, Kasghar became a cultural melting pot of ideas where artistic production reflected influences from all three.
This previously unpublished carpet, is part of a small group of existing silk gallery carpets which draw their influence from Chinese silk and velvet textile designs, (Michael Franses, First under Heaven, Hali Publications London, 1997, Chapter 6, pp.84-6). The scrolling vine, that twists its way through the field, flowers with elegant peonies that are symmetrically balanced throughout the design and which symbolise Spring, good fortune and love. In contrast to the sinuous drawing of the field, the border, which is a variation of the Greek-Key design, is strongly architectural in its appearance. Perhaps the most charming feature of our carpet however are the narrow minor stripes that are filled with small splayed bats. A closely related example of near identical size, which reportedly was once in the Imperial Palace in Beijing, was acquired by E. A. Bischioff and eventually made its way to a private English collection via various auction sales. The soft lemon-yellow field of that carpet is filled with a pierced swastika lattice punctuated with small stylised bats that skim the surface. It first appeared at auction in American Art Association, New York, 8 March 1919, lot 265, then Christie’s East, 3 March 1981, lot 29, followed by Sotheby’s London, 18 April 1984, lot 213 and was sold more recently in these Rooms, 28 April 2005, lot 88. The same small bats on that carpet, and the twisting peony vine of the present lot are both features found in the 18th century silk Kashgar Morgan Carpet now in the Carmen Thyssen-Bornemisza Collection, but which was once owned by J.P.Morgan in New York (Friedrich Sphuler, Carpets and Textiles, The Thyssen-Bornemisza Collection, No 48, pp.188-190). The Morgan carpet incorporates gold and silver thread woven in sumac technique within the bodies of the paired circling phoenix-like birds. It is possible, according to Franses, that the Morgan carpet may have been woven as a pair to one in the Imperial Palace in Beijing, (M.Franses, op. cit., p.99).
Sadly very few carpets woven in the 17th and 18th centuries from this part of the world survive, or if they do, are often fragmentary or heavily worn. It is extremely rare therefore to be able to offer the present lot in such outstanding condition. Both the Morgan and the Bischioff examples are in equally good condition which may be attributable to them having once been housed in the Imperial palace. It is entirely possible therefore that our carpet had also once been part of that decorative scheme, used only on ceremonial occasions thus preserving it for future generations.
The Silk Road settlement town of Kashgar in the Xinjiang province of East Turkestan, was an important trading post and centre of textile manufacture for centuries, and carpet fragments have been discovered there as far back as the 3rd century A.D. It is little wonder that with China to the west, Persia to the east and India to the south, Kasghar became a cultural melting pot of ideas where artistic production reflected influences from all three.
This previously unpublished carpet, is part of a small group of existing silk gallery carpets which draw their influence from Chinese silk and velvet textile designs, (Michael Franses, First under Heaven, Hali Publications London, 1997, Chapter 6, pp.84-6). The scrolling vine, that twists its way through the field, flowers with elegant peonies that are symmetrically balanced throughout the design and which symbolise Spring, good fortune and love. In contrast to the sinuous drawing of the field, the border, which is a variation of the Greek-Key design, is strongly architectural in its appearance. Perhaps the most charming feature of our carpet however are the narrow minor stripes that are filled with small splayed bats. A closely related example of near identical size, which reportedly was once in the Imperial Palace in Beijing, was acquired by E. A. Bischioff and eventually made its way to a private English collection via various auction sales. The soft lemon-yellow field of that carpet is filled with a pierced swastika lattice punctuated with small stylised bats that skim the surface. It first appeared at auction in American Art Association, New York, 8 March 1919, lot 265, then Christie’s East, 3 March 1981, lot 29, followed by Sotheby’s London, 18 April 1984, lot 213 and was sold more recently in these Rooms, 28 April 2005, lot 88. The same small bats on that carpet, and the twisting peony vine of the present lot are both features found in the 18th century silk Kashgar Morgan Carpet now in the Carmen Thyssen-Bornemisza Collection, but which was once owned by J.P.Morgan in New York (Friedrich Sphuler, Carpets and Textiles, The Thyssen-Bornemisza Collection, No 48, pp.188-190). The Morgan carpet incorporates gold and silver thread woven in sumac technique within the bodies of the paired circling phoenix-like birds. It is possible, according to Franses, that the Morgan carpet may have been woven as a pair to one in the Imperial Palace in Beijing, (M.Franses, op. cit., p.99).
Sadly very few carpets woven in the 17th and 18th centuries from this part of the world survive, or if they do, are often fragmentary or heavily worn. It is extremely rare therefore to be able to offer the present lot in such outstanding condition. Both the Morgan and the Bischioff examples are in equally good condition which may be attributable to them having once been housed in the Imperial palace. It is entirely possible therefore that our carpet had also once been part of that decorative scheme, used only on ceremonial occasions thus preserving it for future generations.