WORKSHOP OF HAGOP KAPOUDJIAN, PROBABLY FRANCE, CIRCA 1925

Mounted on wooden boards and pierced in the corners, these cartoons were the working copies which would have been tied to the looms while the weavers worked. They were numbered on the back, suggesting that once they had completed a particular section, the weavers could ask their overseer (ousta) to bring them the following numbered section. These examples have stamps with the address of Hagop's Paris workshop in Rue Saint-Lazare, suggesting they date to the later part of his career.

A number of cartoons from the workshop of Zareh Penyamin, which were purchased directly from his widow, were also part of the Farrow Collection, and published by Pamela Bensoussan, 'The Masterweavers of Istanbul', HALI 26, 1985, p.37. The ephemeral nature of these cartoons - designed to be used and replaced as necessary - means that few survive, and it is rare for them to come onto the market. Further cartoons signed by Hagop Kapoudjian from the George Farrow Collection were sold in these Rooms, 25 April 2024, lot 172 and lots 180-2.