Lot Essay
The opulence of the silk textiles and carpets woven in seventeenth century Kashan and Isfahan was such that numbers of travellers there commented specifically on it (Pater Filorentino de Niño Jesus in 1607-8, Thomas Herbert in 1627-8, John Fryer in 1676 and Jean-Baptiste Tavernier in 1676). Their reports, coupled with documentary evidence such as the order of 1601 from Sigismund of Poland for just such a carpet, enable both the origins and dating of this group of carpets to be made relatively securely. Yezd is the only other city mentioned at the time as producing similar carpets, by Pedro Texeira in 1604 and by a Dutch merchant in 1633 (Ydema, O: Carpets and their datings in Netherlandish Paintings 1540-1700, Zutphen, 1991, p.70).
One feature of the 'Polonaise' group of carpets is that they have often survived in pairs. The present carpet is probably an example of this; its virtual pair was exhibited by the Duveen Brothers in Chicago, woven from an identical cartoon for the field and border with only very slight differences in the central medallion (Pope, A.U.: Catalogue of a Loan Exhibition of Early Oriental Carpets, Chicago, 1926, no.25). Of the approximately 250 surviving examples, the vast majority of 'Polonaise' rugs are small, with only about 30 large format pieces; this is this one of only three large pairs to be known, three of the other five carpets being in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (Dimand, M.S. and Mailey, Jean.: Oriental Rugs in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 1973, nos. 18 (whose pair was sold in 1976 to the Empress of Iran), 19a and 19b.
The border on the present carpet with its meandering peach and grass green grounds is found on both large and small 'Polonaise' carpets. A small pair, one of which was owned by Rothschild, Hagop Kevorkian and J.Paul Getty in succession (Sotheby's New York, December 8, 1990, lot 2), the other of which is in the Cleveland Museum of Art, both have good examples. So too do two large carpets which are not a pair, one formerly in the Charles Deering Collection (Pope, A.U.: A Survey of Persian Art, Oxford, 1938, pl.1246), the other in the National Gallery, Washington D.C.: 'The Widener Polonaise carpet' (Dilley, A.U. and Dimand, Maurice S.: Oriental Rugs and Carpets, Philadelphia and New York, 1959, pl.XIV). The large carpet from the collection of King Umberto II of Italy sold in these Rooms (29 April 1993, lot 432) also had a similar border although in this case the green reciprocated with a sandy yellow. A particularly unusual feature of the treatment of this border is the composition of the round flowerheads, each formed of six curling and partly turned leaves appearing to form petals. This feature is seen as the major flowerhead on a small 'Polonaise' rug in ther Metropolitan Museum of Art, (Dimand, M.S. and Mailey, Jean: op. cit., no.23, fig. 90)
The field of this carpet has, within the light brown frame (another feature shared by the Widener and King Umberto carpets) a delicate design of scrolling scrolling leaves, panels and tendrils. The powerful tone of the central medallion stands out in strong contrast to this. This concept of a few small areas of brilliant colour set against a subtle background is one of the classic features of the 'Polonaise' carpets of the first half of the seventeenth century
One feature of the 'Polonaise' group of carpets is that they have often survived in pairs. The present carpet is probably an example of this; its virtual pair was exhibited by the Duveen Brothers in Chicago, woven from an identical cartoon for the field and border with only very slight differences in the central medallion (Pope, A.U.: Catalogue of a Loan Exhibition of Early Oriental Carpets, Chicago, 1926, no.25). Of the approximately 250 surviving examples, the vast majority of 'Polonaise' rugs are small, with only about 30 large format pieces; this is this one of only three large pairs to be known, three of the other five carpets being in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (Dimand, M.S. and Mailey, Jean.: Oriental Rugs in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 1973, nos. 18 (whose pair was sold in 1976 to the Empress of Iran), 19a and 19b.
The border on the present carpet with its meandering peach and grass green grounds is found on both large and small 'Polonaise' carpets. A small pair, one of which was owned by Rothschild, Hagop Kevorkian and J.Paul Getty in succession (Sotheby's New York, December 8, 1990, lot 2), the other of which is in the Cleveland Museum of Art, both have good examples. So too do two large carpets which are not a pair, one formerly in the Charles Deering Collection (Pope, A.U.: A Survey of Persian Art, Oxford, 1938, pl.1246), the other in the National Gallery, Washington D.C.: 'The Widener Polonaise carpet' (Dilley, A.U. and Dimand, Maurice S.: Oriental Rugs and Carpets, Philadelphia and New York, 1959, pl.XIV). The large carpet from the collection of King Umberto II of Italy sold in these Rooms (29 April 1993, lot 432) also had a similar border although in this case the green reciprocated with a sandy yellow. A particularly unusual feature of the treatment of this border is the composition of the round flowerheads, each formed of six curling and partly turned leaves appearing to form petals. This feature is seen as the major flowerhead on a small 'Polonaise' rug in ther Metropolitan Museum of Art, (Dimand, M.S. and Mailey, Jean: op. cit., no.23, fig. 90)
The field of this carpet has, within the light brown frame (another feature shared by the Widener and King Umberto carpets) a delicate design of scrolling scrolling leaves, panels and tendrils. The powerful tone of the central medallion stands out in strong contrast to this. This concept of a few small areas of brilliant colour set against a subtle background is one of the classic features of the 'Polonaise' carpets of the first half of the seventeenth century