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Lot Essay
The knot count measures approximately 11V x 11H per cm. sq.
A number of workshop carpets were woven in Kirman using design elements derived from Western sources following the contemporary fashion of the Qajar period for incorporating European imagery into Persian objects. Portraits of Western historic personages were sourced from available European newspapers, books, postcards, and paintings. One such rug was woven in 1909 to the order of 'Abd al-Husayn Mirza, Farmanfarma, a great grandson of Fath ‘Ali Shah Qajar, and governor of Kirman province who was considered one of the wealthiest men in Persia at the time. The rug was commissioned by his agent, Muhammed Reza Khan from the workshop of the master craftsman Ustad 'Ali-Kirmani. The commissioning information is recorded in several inscriptions woven into the rug, which is now in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London (T 128.1928). Identical to the present carpet, it has a pastoral field design dominated by a large oval medallion set within a frame, but where here it is filled with a myriad of finely woven and naturalistically drawn flowers, in that carpet, it incorporates figures in European dress posing in front of a country house. The weaver has made certain alterations from the original, however, we can be sure that the fore and middle ground of the medallion are modelled on the painting, 'Les Fêtes Vénitiennes,' circa 1718 by Antoine Watteau (1684-1721).
The success of the design of the present lot depends on the finesse of the knot count as the finer the weave, the more detailed and exact the flowers can be. The knot count of the present rug is considered well above average, which bestows a greater clarity to the overall design. A rug of the same cartoon but mirrored to show the flowering tree on the left hand side of the oval, similar in size and very slightly finer in weave, was sold in these Rooms, 2 April 2009, lot 59. The quality of the present lot is equal to that of the Farmanfarma carpet and, while it is not signed, it was certainly woven in the workshop of an accomplished master weaver such as that of Ustad ‘Ali-Kirmani.
A number of workshop carpets were woven in Kirman using design elements derived from Western sources following the contemporary fashion of the Qajar period for incorporating European imagery into Persian objects. Portraits of Western historic personages were sourced from available European newspapers, books, postcards, and paintings. One such rug was woven in 1909 to the order of 'Abd al-Husayn Mirza, Farmanfarma, a great grandson of Fath ‘Ali Shah Qajar, and governor of Kirman province who was considered one of the wealthiest men in Persia at the time. The rug was commissioned by his agent, Muhammed Reza Khan from the workshop of the master craftsman Ustad 'Ali-Kirmani. The commissioning information is recorded in several inscriptions woven into the rug, which is now in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London (T 128.1928). Identical to the present carpet, it has a pastoral field design dominated by a large oval medallion set within a frame, but where here it is filled with a myriad of finely woven and naturalistically drawn flowers, in that carpet, it incorporates figures in European dress posing in front of a country house. The weaver has made certain alterations from the original, however, we can be sure that the fore and middle ground of the medallion are modelled on the painting, 'Les Fêtes Vénitiennes,' circa 1718 by Antoine Watteau (1684-1721).
The success of the design of the present lot depends on the finesse of the knot count as the finer the weave, the more detailed and exact the flowers can be. The knot count of the present rug is considered well above average, which bestows a greater clarity to the overall design. A rug of the same cartoon but mirrored to show the flowering tree on the left hand side of the oval, similar in size and very slightly finer in weave, was sold in these Rooms, 2 April 2009, lot 59. The quality of the present lot is equal to that of the Farmanfarma carpet and, while it is not signed, it was certainly woven in the workshop of an accomplished master weaver such as that of Ustad ‘Ali-Kirmani.