POSSIBLY BEIJING, CHINA, LAST QUARTER 16TH CENTURY

This fragment is from the same rare group of early Chinese carpets as the Imperial 'Dragon' carpet in the König collection, (lot 143 in the present sale), which are characterized by having an unusual structure of cotton and/or silk warps and wefts tied with unusually large knots of a very dry, bristly wool, see Hans König, "The Emperor's Old Rugs," HALI, issue 142, p.40. These knots are augmented with off-set or extra knots inserted between the rows to form curvilinear designs that would otherwise not be possible on such a large grid. The scale of the thick tendrils, bold lotus flowerheads and hooked leaves, set against the now tobacco-brown ground, suggests that the size of the original complete carpet would have been on a palatial scale. A complete Ming carpet of similar ascending scrolling lotus flower design, framed within an indigo key-pattern border, was previously in the collection of Mona Bismark and later passed to the Wher collection, (see M. Tabibnia, Intrecci Cinesi, Milan, ppp.106-7, pl.2).

The depiction of the lotus vine has taken the form of circular volutes that terminate with hooked leaves. These scrolls echo the decorative pattern of contemporaneous Chinese porcelain as seen on a dish, formerly in the Kwong Yee Che Tong Collection, sold Christie's Hong Kong, 30 May 2024, lot 2806 and another very similar foliate-rim dish illustrated by J. A. Pope, Chinese Porcelains from the Ardebil Shrine, Washington, 1956, pl. 35, nos. 29.101, 29.106, and 29.109.