SOUTH EAST PERSIA, LATE 17TH CENTURY

The weaving technique and colouring of this carpet places it amongst the ‘vase’ carpets from South East Persia of which there are a number of variants. The name of this distinct group of Safavid carpets was coined following an exhibition that was organized by May Beattie in 1976, where all of the carpets displayed shared a very similar technical structure and colour and where the most iconic examples of the group featured the inclusion of vases within their designs. For the purpose of her catalogue, Beattie referred to the weave as ‘vase-technique’, (May H. Beattie, Carpets of Central Persia, with special reference to the rugs of Kirman, Birmingham, 1976, p.11).

At the time Beattie discussed twelve arabesque carpets. Today the group has grown and we are aware of approximately twenty-six examples (see Hali 168, Auction Price Guide, p.139). The two-plane arabesque lattice design formed of split-leaf arabesque vinery punctuated by palmettes can be seen in a beautiful early but fragmentary example in the Museum Für Angewandte Kunst in Vienna. The colours of the interwoven golden yellow and red arabesque vine in this fragment, all set upon a cornflower-blue field, are exemplary, (F.Sarre and H.Trenkwald; Alt-Orientalishe Teppiche, Vienna, 1926, pl. 31, or Siegfried Troll, Altorientalische Teppiche, Vienna, 1951, pl.16, for the full fragment in black and white). Another fragment of comparable ‘lattice’ design, dated to the early 17th century, was sold in The Bernheimer Family Collection, Christie’s London, 14 February 1996, lot 150 and recently re-sold in Sotheby's, New York, 31 January, 2014, lot 143. The overall interpretation of the arabesques within both the indigo field and the red border on the present lot are more angular than those, which indicates that this rug is a little later in date and was most probably woven in the last quarter of the 17th century. A closely related example to our rug woven on a more common wine-red ground colour, with the same field but different cypress-tree border design, was sold at Sotheby’s London, 6 April 2011, lot 456.

It is rare to find a classical carpet that has remained in the same collection for over four generations. It is almost certainly due to this uninterrupted familial ownership that this rug remains complete and in such good condition, where so many others have not.