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A TABRIZ MEDALLION CARPET FRAGMENT
NORTH WEST IRAN, MID-16TH CENTURY
Price £3,760 ($5,396)
Sale Information
CHRISTIE'S
SALE 6435 —
ORIENTAL RUGS AND CARPETS
3 May 2001
London, King Street
Lot Description
A TABRIZ MEDALLION CARPET FRAGMENT
North West Persia, mid-16th Century
The blue field with palmettes issuing angular flowering vine together wtih
stylised ivory leaves, in a medium blue border of flowerhead and palmette
and flowering vine meander, inner running dog stripe, ivory linked
flowerhead stripe
2ft.9in. square (84cm. square)
Lot Notes
This unusual fragment, representing a spandrel from a large Tabriz carpet is
drawn with an unusual energy. The majority of Tabriz medallion carpets,
particularly those from the early part of the sixteenth century, have a calm
and even spacing of floral motifs within the medallion and spandrels. Only
in the middle of the century. with carpets like the Rothschild medallion
carpet (sold in these Rooms 8 July 1999, lot 188), does the energy of the
arabesque come in. Suddenly there, as here, the motifs reach out from the
corner, trying to insert themselves further into the field. The drawing here
is even more attenuated, with the side arabesques crowding the central
motif. The spandrel also has just the beginning of the red field of the rug
showing, indicating a far more cusped outline than one would normally find
in a rug of this origin, again accentuating the energy of the design.
An unusual feature is the size of the main green border. This spandrel would
lead to the assumption of a relatively large carpet. Yet the border width is
narrow. Could the original carpet have been even larger than at first
thought, with the green border only serving as the minor inner guard stripe?
This would accord with the arrangement for example on the Ardebil carpet,
one of the very rare instances of two substantial guard stripes on an early
Safavid carpet, necessitated by its size of 34ft.6in. x 17ft.6in. (1050 x
532cm.).
Another comparable fragment from the same carpet is in the Victoria and
Albert Museum.
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