NINGXIA, NORTH CHINA, KANGXI PERIOD, SECOND HALF 17TH CENTURY

The design of indigo lotus flowers and linked scrolling, leafy vine is set upon a tan-coloured field that is not too distant from its once rich red field. The same treatment of the lotus flowers can be seen here as in the Michaelian lotus and butterfly fragment (lot 146 in the present sale), but the leaves have now become a uniform colour. A number of long format carpets from the imperial Wanli group and the Kangxi period survive, some of which measure over 6.5m in length but which are usually less than 2m. in width. The intended use of these long, narrow carpets is not entirely clear as their size does not conform with the usual functions.

Among the corpus of surviving carpets with all-over lotus designs, some depict different flower variations while others show only one. The relation of this design to woven silks has been long established and seems very strong in this example due to the exactitude in which the dominant flowers are set in the branches. In later Chinese rugs the flowers tend to be larger. The field of this carpet relates to a carpet formerly in the Thyssen Bornemisza Collection (F. Spuhler, The Thyssen-Bornemisza Collection, Carpets and Textiles, London, 1998, pp.212-3, pl.54) which shows an overall pattern of peonies which, as with all Chinese carpets, does not present the design as an endless pattern on which the border is superimposed as a frame, but rather is complete and contained within the field with a narrow undecorated strip all around, sold Sotheby's London, 6 November 2018, lot 100.