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Lot Essay
Knot Count: 242 knots per sq. inch.
Technical analysis available upon request.
The circular inscription reads:
Farmayesh-e Sardar Mohtasham Bakhtiari ayalat Kirman wa Beluchistan Ordered by Sardar Mohtasham Bakhtiari provincial Governor of Kirman and Baluchistan
The footed vase shaped cartouche reads:
Safaresh-e Muhammad Reza Khan az-e karkhane Ustad 'Ali Kirmani
Commissioned by Muhammad Reza Khan from the Workshop of 'Ali Kirmani
The second inscription would appear to refer to Ghulam Husayn Khan, whose titles were first Sehab al-Sultana and subsequently Sardar Mohtasham (c.1866-1950). He was the sixth son of Imamquli Khan (known as Haji Ilkhani). Between 1905 and 1921 he was twice ilbegi and twice ilkani of the Bakhtiari tribe. He was a government minister between 1911-1913. He is remembered as a pensive, courageous and extremely honest man. (Encyclopaedia Iranica, vol.III, New York, 2000, p.548).
In the late 19th century and early 20th century, it became fashionable in Iran to have Kirman carpets whose designs were taken from European models. Versions of Western prints of pre-Islamic Iranian sites and other European depictions became the rage. Prominent citizens commonly commissioned carpets either as gifts or for personal use. In one particularly unusual example now in the Carpet Museum in Tehran a French print of an ancient Gallic warrior complete with its title in copperplate script "guerrier francaise", was woven into a Kirman rug woven for the Prime Minister Prince Abdul Hussain Farmanfarmaian (Farmanfarma).
The position of governor of Kirman was obviously one that made the commissioning of such carpets easier. A comparable very fine and large pictorial Kirman carpet made for another governor of the province, Sardar Asad (who also came from the powerful Bakhtiari) was sold in Christie's London 29 April, 2004, lot 50. The design of each carpet is taken from that of a Louis XIV Gobelins tapestry displayed in the public rooms of Nasir al-Din Shah Qajar at the Golestan Palace in Tehran. The cartoon for the tapestry and thus ultimately for both carpets has been attributed to drawings by Raphael which were then adapted in the seventeenth century.
Technical analysis available upon request.
The circular inscription reads:
Farmayesh-e Sardar Mohtasham Bakhtiari ayalat Kirman wa Beluchistan Ordered by Sardar Mohtasham Bakhtiari provincial Governor of Kirman and Baluchistan
The footed vase shaped cartouche reads:
Safaresh-e Muhammad Reza Khan az-e karkhane Ustad 'Ali Kirmani
Commissioned by Muhammad Reza Khan from the Workshop of 'Ali Kirmani
The second inscription would appear to refer to Ghulam Husayn Khan, whose titles were first Sehab al-Sultana and subsequently Sardar Mohtasham (c.1866-1950). He was the sixth son of Imamquli Khan (known as Haji Ilkhani). Between 1905 and 1921 he was twice ilbegi and twice ilkani of the Bakhtiari tribe. He was a government minister between 1911-1913. He is remembered as a pensive, courageous and extremely honest man. (Encyclopaedia Iranica, vol.III, New York, 2000, p.548).
In the late 19th century and early 20th century, it became fashionable in Iran to have Kirman carpets whose designs were taken from European models. Versions of Western prints of pre-Islamic Iranian sites and other European depictions became the rage. Prominent citizens commonly commissioned carpets either as gifts or for personal use. In one particularly unusual example now in the Carpet Museum in Tehran a French print of an ancient Gallic warrior complete with its title in copperplate script "guerrier francaise", was woven into a Kirman rug woven for the Prime Minister Prince Abdul Hussain Farmanfarmaian (Farmanfarma).
The position of governor of Kirman was obviously one that made the commissioning of such carpets easier. A comparable very fine and large pictorial Kirman carpet made for another governor of the province, Sardar Asad (who also came from the powerful Bakhtiari) was sold in Christie's London 29 April, 2004, lot 50. The design of each carpet is taken from that of a Louis XIV Gobelins tapestry displayed in the public rooms of Nasir al-Din Shah Qajar at the Golestan Palace in Tehran. The cartoon for the tapestry and thus ultimately for both carpets has been attributed to drawings by Raphael which were then adapted in the seventeenth century.