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Lot Essay
There has long been a fascination with the symbolism of the dragon and its depiction in carpet weavings. The design of ‘Dragon’ carpets consists of a field pattern composed of different coloured overlaid lattices formed of pointed, serrated leaves creating intersecting lozenges, which alternately contain palmettes and are flanked by confronted stylised dragons, birds or animal figures. The most archaic of the ‘Dragon’ carpets include dragon motifs with birds and running animals relatively naturalistically drawn, which stand either alone or in confronted pairs facing a tree. The Graf carpet, originally found in a Damascene mosque, now in the Islamiches Museum, Berlin, is considered to be the oldest example of this type, see Serare Yetkin, Early Caucasian Carpets in Turkey, Vol. II, London, 1978, p.8, fig.118. Yetkin defines four types of 'Dragon' carpet: 'Archaic,' ‘Four-Dragon’, ‘Dragon and Phoenix’ and as a further combined development of the latter, the ‘Two-Dragon’ style. With its alternate rows of four lozenges containing a dragon figure, the present lot belongs to the 'Four-Dragon' group
In his discussion on the subject, Charles Grant Ellis defines the various animals which inhabit this magnificent group (C.G. Ellis, Early Caucasian Rugs, Washington D.C., 1976, p.14). Although highly stylised, the present lot contains some of the animals he describes: addorsed, paired dragons are arranged in alternate rows on the shaded terracotta field, while addorsed pheasants lie in the fawn and pale yellow primary lattice, while there is the faintest suggestion of a running deer within the lower mauve and dark green serrated leaves of the secondary lattice.
The border design of polychrome S-shapes arranged on both vertical and diagonal axses, with each alternate motif bearing a central bar containing a minor s-motif, appears on a carpet formerly in the Mosque of Süleyman Subasi at Unkapani, now in the Türk ve Islam Eserleri Museum, Istanbul, and which, as a design, relates to a number of sixteenth century north west Persian carpets, (Yetkin, op.cit. p.85)
In his discussion on the subject, Charles Grant Ellis defines the various animals which inhabit this magnificent group (C.G. Ellis, Early Caucasian Rugs, Washington D.C., 1976, p.14). Although highly stylised, the present lot contains some of the animals he describes: addorsed, paired dragons are arranged in alternate rows on the shaded terracotta field, while addorsed pheasants lie in the fawn and pale yellow primary lattice, while there is the faintest suggestion of a running deer within the lower mauve and dark green serrated leaves of the secondary lattice.
The border design of polychrome S-shapes arranged on both vertical and diagonal axses, with each alternate motif bearing a central bar containing a minor s-motif, appears on a carpet formerly in the Mosque of Süleyman Subasi at Unkapani, now in the Türk ve Islam Eserleri Museum, Istanbul, and which, as a design, relates to a number of sixteenth century north west Persian carpets, (Yetkin, op.cit. p.85)