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Lot Essay
The knot count measures approximately 7V x 8H knots per cm. sq.
Though the colouring and structure of this rug is typical of Hagop's work, it differs from much of his output in that we have not been able to find a clear prototype among classical rugs and carpets. Though the elements - the saz leaves, the cloudbands, the wide palmettes - are all commonly enountered on Safavid carpets, this particular combination seems to be Hagop's own. The main border features repeated palmettes containing masks or bearded faces, between which are paired leopards. The inner minor stripe is also punctuated by the faces of divs, the demons of Persian mythology. This border appears on a celebrated Mughal pictorial rug which was published by Sarre and Trenkwald, Alt-Orientalische Teppiche, Vienna, 1926, plate 35. It is in the Museum of Applied Arts, Vienna (acc.no.Or292). That rug was certainly known to weavers active in Istanbul at the turn of the century - a close copy of it woven in Istanbul around the year 1900 was published by Leonard Harrow, The Fabric of Paradise, London, 1988, no.22, pp.82-3.
A rug, signed by Hagop, which is published as part of the Riverbank collection also uses a Safavid visual vocabulary for the field. The border seems to match that on our example, and may have been woven to the same cartoon (Leonard Harrow and Jack Franses, The Riverbank Collection: silk rugs from Turkey and Persia, London, 1996, pp.10-11).
Though the colouring and structure of this rug is typical of Hagop's work, it differs from much of his output in that we have not been able to find a clear prototype among classical rugs and carpets. Though the elements - the saz leaves, the cloudbands, the wide palmettes - are all commonly enountered on Safavid carpets, this particular combination seems to be Hagop's own. The main border features repeated palmettes containing masks or bearded faces, between which are paired leopards. The inner minor stripe is also punctuated by the faces of divs, the demons of Persian mythology. This border appears on a celebrated Mughal pictorial rug which was published by Sarre and Trenkwald, Alt-Orientalische Teppiche, Vienna, 1926, plate 35. It is in the Museum of Applied Arts, Vienna (acc.no.Or292). That rug was certainly known to weavers active in Istanbul at the turn of the century - a close copy of it woven in Istanbul around the year 1900 was published by Leonard Harrow, The Fabric of Paradise, London, 1988, no.22, pp.82-3.
A rug, signed by Hagop, which is published as part of the Riverbank collection also uses a Safavid visual vocabulary for the field. The border seems to match that on our example, and may have been woven to the same cartoon (Leonard Harrow and Jack Franses, The Riverbank Collection: silk rugs from Turkey and Persia, London, 1996, pp.10-11).