Lot Essay
The design of the present lot derives from an early group of French Savonnerie carpets frequently referred to as Louis XIII carpets. It is widely believed however that the group were rather woven after the reign of Louis XIII, between his death in 1643 and the succession of Louis XIV to the throne in 1661. On January 4, 1608, Henri IV encouraged French carpet production by granting workshop space in the basement of the Louvre below the Grande Galerie to Pierre Dupont tapissier ordinaire en tapis de Turquie at façons de Levant, (see Pierre Verlet, The James Rothschild Collection at Waddersdon Manor, The Savonnerie, The National Trust, London, 1982, p. 28). One of Dupont's apprentices, Simon Lourdet, quickly became so proficient in the trade that he ingratiated himself to the Queen, Marie de Medici, who allowed him to install another workshop in the former soap factory, or savonnerie at Chaillot.
Carpets from that period shared many common features, foremost the black or dark blue and sometimes brown ground colour that is strewn with colourful, naturalistic and identifiable single flowers or sprays. A wide and defined border surrounds the field containing similar flowers and floral arrangements creating a millefleurs effect. Often the flower arrangements in the border are sitting in blue and white Chinese porcelain bowls, silver basins, cartouches, or low open-work straw baskets. The minor borders separating the border from the field and outlining the border are typically drawn from elements of the antique or from borders used in tapestries from the same period such as a small-scale scrolled leaf and leaf tip ornament as used in the inner border of our example with a similar variation in the outer border. It is not known who designed or provided the models for these carpets but the overall concept is based on Oriental (Persian, Indian and Turkish) carpets combined with the European taste for flowers.
Carpets from that period shared many common features, foremost the black or dark blue and sometimes brown ground colour that is strewn with colourful, naturalistic and identifiable single flowers or sprays. A wide and defined border surrounds the field containing similar flowers and floral arrangements creating a millefleurs effect. Often the flower arrangements in the border are sitting in blue and white Chinese porcelain bowls, silver basins, cartouches, or low open-work straw baskets. The minor borders separating the border from the field and outlining the border are typically drawn from elements of the antique or from borders used in tapestries from the same period such as a small-scale scrolled leaf and leaf tip ornament as used in the inner border of our example with a similar variation in the outer border. It is not known who designed or provided the models for these carpets but the overall concept is based on Oriental (Persian, Indian and Turkish) carpets combined with the European taste for flowers.