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Early Azerbaijan "Garden" rug fragment, Von Hirsch Collection, 17th century Sotheby's Carpets from Distinguished Collections New York | 31 Jan 2014, 10:00 AM | N09104 LOT 92 PROPERTY FROM THE ESTATE OF EVA LOUISE WOODHEAD FEUERSTEIN A NORTHWEST PERSIAN GARDEN CARPET FRAGMENT approximately 7ft. 9in. by 2ft. 11in. (2.36 by 0.89m.) 17th century ESTIMATE 80,000-120,000 USD Lot Sold: 221,000 USD PROVENANCE The Robert Von Hirsch Collection, Sotheby Parke Bernet, London, June 20-27, 1978, lot 501 EXHIBITED Through the Collector’s Eye: Oriental Rugs from New England Private Collections, Rhode Island School of Design, Providence, Rhode Island, November 1991 - February 1992 Through the Collector’s Eye: Oriental Rugs from New England Private Collections, The Textile Museum, Washington, D.C., March 1992 - May 1992 LITERATURE Julia Bailey, et al., Through the Collector’s Eye: Oriental Rugs from New England Private Collections, Providence, Rhode Island, 1991, no. 31, pp. 86-87 CATALOGUE NOTE This lot is one of four pieces that together would have comprised a carpet fragment measuring nearly 18 feet by 7 feet. The present fragment features two and a half lobed stars, partial crosses, and two sides of the single red floral border. The central star features a green cypress, while a date palm is partially visible in the top star. The overall design of the original carpet, with two stars across the width and six along the length, is different from other Persian garden carpets which were more architectural in their depictions of a chahar bagh, or a formal Persian garden with rectangular plots connected by a series of water channels emanating from a central source. Rather than visually concentrating on the garden’s geometric layout as it appears from a birds-eye view, this carpet’s design, interestingly, focuses on the organic and curvilinear qualities of the trees and flora within the garden. This lot's design can be related to other Safavid carpets, but the large size of its individual motifs and its coloration mark it as different from other Persian garden carpets. The arrangement of the individual trees also sets this carpet apart as they do not point to the same direction, resulting in a carpet that is not directional but can be viewed from many angles. The drawing of the trees and plants in the present lot have been traced to the Jaipur Garden Carpet in the Albert Hall Museum in Jaipur, as explained by John Eskenazi and Michael Frances, Il tappeto orientale dal XV al XVIII secolo, London, 1982, pp.43-4. The fact that the Jaipur Garden Carpet is a ‘vase’-technique carpet, meaning that it was woven in Kirman, indicates how successful designs traveled throughout Safavid Persia in the form of portable cartoons. Carpet weavers, who were often commissioned by wealthy individuals or the court, were able to draw on varied sources of inspiration because most carpets were woven from such cartoons which were produced and disseminated throughout the Safavid empire. |
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Literature
HALI, Vol.II, no.1, advertising p.66 (Alan Marcusson).
HALI 42, November/December 1988, p.89.
Alexander, Christopher: A Foreshadowing of 21st
Century Art, the Color and Geometry of Very Early Turkish Carpets, New York and
Oxford, 1993, pp.280-2.
Lot Notes
This is one of four fragments which together comprise
almost all of a carpet which is one of the most brilliantly coloured and
powerfully drawn in the entire history of Persian carpets. It is also a carpet
for which there is no close parallel. The scale of the drawing is remarkable.
While the designs can be related to those of other Safavid carpets, it is the
size of the individual motifs coupled with the intensity of the various colours
which immediately draws the viewer's attention.
There is a notable group of
carpets from north west Persia in the 16th century which have a great variety of
trees, notably the group relating to the Schwarzenberg carpet (Pope, Arthur
Upham: A Survey of Persian Art, Oxford, 1938, pl.1203, together with pls.
1126-1129, 1140-1141 and 1203). None of these however relate in type as closely
to the present carpet as do the trees in a carpet made the other end of the
country. Both Eskenazi and Franses (Il Tappeto Orientale dal XV al XVIII secolo,
London, 1982, pp.43-4) and Professor Alexander (op. cit, p.280) comment on the
similarity of the drawing to that of the Jaipur garden carpet. All the design
elements can be traced back to that carpet, including each individual tree
motif. The Jaipur carpet can be dated with certainty to before 1632 through the
Jaipur records. How the design passed from Kirman to north west Persia remains
less easy to explain. Eskenazi/Franses point out how some of the group relating
to the Schwarzenberg carpet also have technical features which also make them
difficult to place; those structures however differ from that of the present
carpet. The precise place of manufacture of this carpet therefore remains
difficult to define. Multi-ply warps are found in the North West Persian region
(see lot 301), as, at a later date, are red wefts. Alan Marcusson, when he
advertised this piece, tentatively suggested Bidjar, but more evidence is needed
to place it with certainty.
One remarkable feature of this
carpet is the alignment of the trees in the various cartouches. Not only do they
not follow the normal Perisan rule of all facing the same way, but they do not
even all point to the centre or to a particular point, as is found for instance
in a number of Indian carpets. The carpet is designed so that, wherever the
viewer is placed, some of the cartouches are correctly aligned.
The Robert von Hirsch garden
carpet was sold in 1978 as a fragment. From the catalogue illustration it is
possible mentally to reconstruct the field of the original carpet; this is done
in a drawing in Eskenazi/Franses (op. cit., p.43). The top right hand piece is
in the Wher
Collection;
the top left hand in the Keir Collection (Robinson, B.W. et al.: Islamic Art in
the Keir Collection, London, 1988, no.T28, pp.78-80); while the lower left is in
an American collection (Eskenazi/Franses: op.cit, pl.24). The present lot is the
lower right hand quadrant (the carpet as sold was lacking the lower half of the
lower star panel). Wherever it was produced, it is not surprising that in the
HALI 10th anniversary review, this was held by the entirely unbiassed editors to
be 'one of the most beautiful objects advertised in 1979.