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Lot Essay
The Benlian star signature reads sherkat-e jabbarzadeh-ye qali-bafiyan va Mahmud, which translates as ‘The Jabbarzadeh Carpet weaving company and Mahmud’.
The Benlian workshop was founded in the first half of the 20th century in Tabriz where it wove carpets specifically for the European market. Of Armenian descent, Edward E Benlian, a London based carpet dealer, had a strong affinity with the Armenian community of Tabriz and set up a workshop employing the best weavers in order to produce carpets of the highest quality. His master weavers included Javan Amir Kizi and Mahmud Ghalicheh, by whom the present carpet is woven, both of whom were extremely successful in reinterpreting the classical carpet designs of 16th and 17th century Safavid Persia, for more modern tastes. Whilst other early 20th century workshops such as Petag began producing Tabriz carpets of similar style, Benlian carpets can be identified by their eight-pointed star insignia woven in the corner of each inner guard stripe.
The design, including the inscription cartouches, copies the 'Emperor's carpets' one of which is in the Museum für Angewandte Kunst in Vienna and its pair, sold to Duveen through Christie's in 1929, is now in the Metropolitan Museum in New York.
The Benlian workshop was founded in the first half of the 20th century in Tabriz where it wove carpets specifically for the European market. Of Armenian descent, Edward E Benlian, a London based carpet dealer, had a strong affinity with the Armenian community of Tabriz and set up a workshop employing the best weavers in order to produce carpets of the highest quality. His master weavers included Javan Amir Kizi and Mahmud Ghalicheh, by whom the present carpet is woven, both of whom were extremely successful in reinterpreting the classical carpet designs of 16th and 17th century Safavid Persia, for more modern tastes. Whilst other early 20th century workshops such as Petag began producing Tabriz carpets of similar style, Benlian carpets can be identified by their eight-pointed star insignia woven in the corner of each inner guard stripe.
The design, including the inscription cartouches, copies the 'Emperor's carpets' one of which is in the Museum für Angewandte Kunst in Vienna and its pair, sold to Duveen through Christie's in 1929, is now in the Metropolitan Museum in New York.