SIGNED HAGOP KAPOUDJIAN, ISTANBUL, TURKEY, CIRCA 1920

The knot count measures approximately 9V x 7H knots per cm. sq.

This rug belongs to a group woven later in Hagop Kapoudjian’s career. His confidence as a designer had evolved: rather than simply following classical prototypes, he was boldly combining and creating around the designs developed by sixteenth and seventeenth century weavers. Typical of Hagop is the purple field, which he seems to have made into his trademark later in his career. He also proudy signs his work, with his initials appearing twice in the corners.

The overall design of the rug, with a round central medallion and a field populated by fierce and fantastical beasts, is evocative of Safavid carpets. An example in the Gulbenkian Museum, Lisbon, is similar in its overall conception (acc.no.Inv.100), while another in the National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C (acc.no.1942.9.477) also has a yellow central medallion. The details of the present design, however, are much more fanciful than either of those.

A particularly striking feature is the profusion of dragons in the design. Four golden serpents, mirrored along the vertical and horizontal axes, outline the central field medallion. Inside the border there are further metal-thread dragons, spotted and winged, which dart in and out of the floral meander. These are not unknown on Safavid weavings: the ‘Dragon’ carpets of Safavid Azerbaijan are structured around a lattice of white dragons, and on early examples – such as that in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, acc.no.10.3.1999 – they are often spotted. Spotted dragons also appear in the border of the magnificent Sanguzsko carpet in the Miho Museum, Kyoto, which was published by Arthur Upham Pope, The Survey of Persian Art, Oxford, 1939.

Dragons like these can be observed on two other rugs woven in Istanbul around the turn of the century which are published by Leonard Harrow. The first of these shares with our example a scalloped central medallion, which contains a single large coiled white dragon (Leonard Harrow, The Fabric of Paradise, London, 1988, p.78, no.20). The second example has a red field, and a central medallion containing four pairs of dragons executed in metal-thread. These motifs are repeated in the four spandrels (ibid., p.86, no.24). Although Harrow does not attribute either of these to Hagop, both examples were produced by weavers working in a similar milieu.

A purple-ground silk and metal-thread signed Hagop rug was sold in The George Farrow collection, in these Rooms, 25 April 2024, lot 183. A similarity can also be observed between the border on this rug and that on the example inspired by Caucasian ‘Dragon’ carpets in the same sale, lot 186. This gives further strength to Farrow’s suggestion that that rug, and others from the ‘Toussounian’ group, were in fact woven by Hagop under contract for Toussounian.