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A NORTH WEST PERSIAN RUNNER
FIRST HALF 19TH CENTURY
Price Realized
£11,250 ($17,415)
Sale Information
Christie's SALE 7845 —
ORIENTAL RUGS AND CARPETS
15 April
2010
London, King Street
Lot Description
97-A NORTH WEST PERSIAN RUNNER
FIRST HALF 19TH
CENTURY
Overall light wear, unevenly corroded chocolate-brown, touches
of repiling, two minute repairs, slight loss at each end
12ft.4in. x
3ft.4in. (376cm. x 102cm.)
Lot Notes
The field design of the
present runner derives ultimately from the triple overlaid vase design
that has been reduced to its purest geometry: different coloured stems
linking stylised well-spaced flowerheads. Runners similar in design can be
found from the South Caucasus, mostly attributed to Moghan. One with an
indigo-blue field was sold in these Rooms, 18 October 2001, lot 283 as
part of the James D. Burns Collection and another one with a white field
was sold on 17 October 2002, lot 157. The latter is closely related to an
example illustrated in Eberhart Herrmann, Seltene Orientteppiche IX,
Munich 1987, No.33, pp.82-82. The lattice in the Moghan rugs is much
denser than in our rug, and the flowerheads are if anything only partly
connected to the sprays, indicating that the Moghan rugs are probably
later in date.
The olive-green field colour in our lot is unusual
to find in combination with the design and there appears to be no other
example known. The colour is much more typical of weavings from North West
Persia. The border also, with its very curvilinear rendering, also
indicates North West Persia rather than the Caucasus as an origin, as does
the tight weaving with wavy red wefting. The border in tonality is very
interesting as it appears to be very possibly the prototype for a whole
group of Caucasian borders, from a blossom carpet illustrated in Serare
Yetkin (Early Caucasian Carpets in Turkey, Vol.1, London 1978, plate 67),
to the well-known very angular Borjalu Kazak border such as those
illustrated by Ralph Kaffel (Caucasian Prayer Rugs, London, 1998, p.44-45)
and Ulrich Schürrmann, (Caucasian Rugs, Cologne, 1964, pp.78-79). This
again indicates a date in the first half of the 19th century for our
runner, and possibly even earlier.
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