Lot Essay
It is unusual for carpets of this type to have a green ground.
Compare a carpet with an almost identical pattern, incoporating lotus and bats on a yellow ground, in the Nanjing Museum, a detail of which is illustrated in Zhongguo meishu quanji, Textiles, Beijing, 1987, vol. 7, pl. 157. See, also, the carpet in the Jaehne collection dated to the Kangxi period, with a pale gold backround and a design of scrolling lotus without bats, included in the exhibition, Chinese Art from the Newark Museum, China Institute in America, March 19-May 25, 1980, illustrated in the Catalogue, p. 56, fig. 34. In the entry, the authors, Valrae Reynolds and Yen Fen Pei, mention that Chinese silk velvets were made following the introduction of Spainish velvet textiles in China, probably imported by the Portugese at the beginning of the 16th century, an opinion expressed by Harold Burnham, "Chinese Velvets", Royal Ontario Museum Occasional Paper 2, Toronto, 1959, pp. 9-16
Compare, also, the single panel of the the same type, but with a reddish-brown ground, in the Victoria and Albert Musuem, dated to the 17th century and illustrated by R. Soame Jenyns, Chinese Art, The Minor Arts II, New York, rev. ed. 1982, pp. 40-41; and more recently by Rose Kerr, Chinese Art and Design, Art Objects in Ritual and Daily Life, New York, 1991, p. 116, pl. 45, where a date of 1670-1730 is given
Other examples include the blue-ground carpet included in the exhibition, The Minor Arts of China, Spink and Son, London, March 15-25, 1983, Catalogue, p. 74, no. 108; and another described as "sage green and red" included in the exhibition, Imperial Robes and Textiles of the Chinese Court, The Minneapolis Institute of Arts, April 13-June 15, 1943, illustrated by Alan Preist in the Catalogue, no. 161, pl. XVIII
Similar carpets were sold in these rooms June 2, 1989, lots 376 and 377
Compare a carpet with an almost identical pattern, incoporating lotus and bats on a yellow ground, in the Nanjing Museum, a detail of which is illustrated in Zhongguo meishu quanji, Textiles, Beijing, 1987, vol. 7, pl. 157. See, also, the carpet in the Jaehne collection dated to the Kangxi period, with a pale gold backround and a design of scrolling lotus without bats, included in the exhibition, Chinese Art from the Newark Museum, China Institute in America, March 19-May 25, 1980, illustrated in the Catalogue, p. 56, fig. 34. In the entry, the authors, Valrae Reynolds and Yen Fen Pei, mention that Chinese silk velvets were made following the introduction of Spainish velvet textiles in China, probably imported by the Portugese at the beginning of the 16th century, an opinion expressed by Harold Burnham, "Chinese Velvets", Royal Ontario Museum Occasional Paper 2, Toronto, 1959, pp. 9-16
Compare, also, the single panel of the the same type, but with a reddish-brown ground, in the Victoria and Albert Musuem, dated to the 17th century and illustrated by R. Soame Jenyns, Chinese Art, The Minor Arts II, New York, rev. ed. 1982, pp. 40-41; and more recently by Rose Kerr, Chinese Art and Design, Art Objects in Ritual and Daily Life, New York, 1991, p. 116, pl. 45, where a date of 1670-1730 is given
Other examples include the blue-ground carpet included in the exhibition, The Minor Arts of China, Spink and Son, London, March 15-25, 1983, Catalogue, p. 74, no. 108; and another described as "sage green and red" included in the exhibition, Imperial Robes and Textiles of the Chinese Court, The Minneapolis Institute of Arts, April 13-June 15, 1943, illustrated by Alan Preist in the Catalogue, no. 161, pl. XVIII
Similar carpets were sold in these rooms June 2, 1989, lots 376 and 377