TWO NORTH AFRICAN PILE CARPET BORDER FRAGMENTS

PROBABLY 18TH CENTURY

Details

TWO NORTH AFRICAN PILE CARPET BORDER FRAGMENTS
PROBABLY 18TH CENTURY
Of Mamluk style, the main band of each with a succession of alternating blue and red cartouches containing stylised floral motifs divided by green cusped roundels containing similar motifs, flanked by simple geometric panels, between narrow red and white stripes overlaid by a similar light blue zigzag, one band also with a red side border of green S-motifs, areas of damage, full pile
19ft.4in. x 1ft.4in. (588 x 41cm.); and 19ft.3in. x 1ft.10in. (585 x 56cm.)
Warp: cotton and hemp(?), Z5S
Weft: hemp(?), Z2; dark blue wool wefts, Z2S; 2 shoots
Pile: wool, Z2S, cable of Z2S+Z for yellow; symmetric, and sharing an asymmetric open right, also Spanish and symmetric on 3 warps; H21 x V27 (2)

Lot Essay

The technical analysis of these two border fragments confirms the eye's initial reaction; they are most unusual. To find a combination of symmetric, assymmetric and Spanish knotting in the same piece is unusual, althuogh it is occasionally found in pieces from North Africa. The degenerate Mamluk design can be seen on an incomplete carpet in the al-Sabah Collection, Kuwait, which shares with the present example a thick pile and bright colouring (illustrated Arts and the Islamic World, volume 1, no.3, cover photo, uncredited).

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