ISFAHAN, CENTRAL PERSIA, FIRST QUARTER 17TH CENTURY

The 'Polonaise' group were the subject of a celebrated 1968 thesis by Friedrich Spuhler, in which he formulated a way of classifying most known examples according to their design. The field of this example fits into his typology as type XII, 3, a design typified by intersecting split-palmette branches forming an overall 'x' shape. Other examples of this type recorded by Spuhler, include one formerly in the collection of Dr Heinrich Wulff, Copenhagen, which was formerly in the collection of the Duke of Holstein Gottorp, supposedly given to the family by a Persian embassy in 1633 (A Collection of Oriental Rugs and Carpets belonging to Heinrich Wulff, Copenhagen, 1934, no.1). Spuhler further mentions two other rugs of this design, one in the collection of John D. Rockefeller (The Art News, 7 April 1928, p.10), and a final example which was then with Vincent Robinson, published by Wilhelm Bode (Vorderasiatische Knüpfteppiche aus älterer Zeit von Wilhelm Bode, Leipzig, 1902, plate 31).

Of the three comparable examples, it is the last of these which is closest to being a pair with the present lot, since it also shares the border, with striking blue split palmettes between open flowerheads, with a 'reciprocal-Y' stripe to the inner and leaf and flowerheads to the exterior guard stripe. This border design - which Spuhler refers to as 22b - also is found on a rug in St Mark's Basilica, Venice (F. Spuhler, Seidene Repräsentationsteppiche der Mittleren bis Späten safawidenzeit, PhD. thesis, Berlin, 1968, p.194, no.89), and another then in the collection of Baronin von Essen in Upsala, Sweden (Spuhler, op.cit. 1968, p.211,no.134).