EAST TURKESTAN, THIRD QUARTER 19TH CENTURY

Although the design is sometimes drawn with a single vase, the present carpet has a mirrored design along the central vertical axis displaying two vases at each end, each issuing an ascending tree hung with ripe pomegranates. A closely related example with the same field design and rich colours with an additional pierced polychrome trellis border and greater length, was offered in these Rooms as part of The Bernheimer Collection, 14 February 1996, lot 68. For a comprehensive discussion of this group with the ‘Pomegranate-Vase’ pattern, together with floral motif elements in the borders, see Hans Bidder, Carpets from Eastern Turkestan, Washington International Associates, 1979, Chp.III, The Khotan Carpets, 1.

The Vase-Pomegranate Pattern, pp.49-53, plates I & II, which illustrates an example with the pomegranate design against an indigo ground, 17^th/ 18^th century, and another against a saffron yellow ground, 18^th century. For a virtually identical example woven in silk with the same ‘Pomegranate-Vase' pattern design set against an ice-blue ground, including the border width, colours and motifs see E. Herrmann, Von Uschak bis Yarkand, Seltene Orientteppiche aus vier Jahrhunderten, Munich, 1979, No. 111, pg.157.