FRANCE, 18TH CENTURY

The carpet offered here is a scarce example of an early knotted pile carpet produced outside the Savonnerie workshop. Nonetheless, its design indicates a strong influence from Savonnerie. From the 1740s, the royal workshop came under growing pressure from the burgeoning demand for luxury carpets of the sort which might have been seen in the Palace of Versailles. The search began for a new weaving centre which might meet that demand, and eventually royal officials settled on the village of Aubusson. In 1748 the weavers received their first royal commission, and after 1750 Louis XV sent them a number of Savonnerie carpets to give them a clearer sense of contemporary taste (Sarah B. Sherill, Carpets and Rugs of Europe and America, New York, 1995, p. 102). These early designs are often typified by the central rose moresque motif, which had been borrowed directly from Savonnerie, and an overall Rococo aesthetic well suited to the opulence of the Ancien Régime.
Continuing their association with sumptuous interiors, comparable early Aubusson pile carpets have been offered as part of significant collection sales. Two featured in the collection of Hubert de Givenchy, Christie’s Paris, 15-17 June 2022, lots 106 and 127, while a further one was included in the Ann & Gordon Getty sale, Christie’s New York, 22 October 2022, lot 423.