EAST TURKESTAN, CIRCA 1880

The defining feature of this carpet is its shimmering abrashed pistachio-green field over which is laid a closely-knit hooked red lattice. It is through the juxtaposition of these two simple colours that it achieves the desired effect. The lattice design superficially resembles the Turkmen aksu design, but while the aksu lattice is first seen on Iranian goldwork of the first millennium B.C., the lattice here, formed of inverted cloud-band collars, appears to be from China and is found on Chinese carpets of an early date.

The origin of the cloud-lattice design is not entirely clear as it was used across an extensive area ranging from China to the Mediterranean, by different people, in a range of media such as wood, metal and stone ('Gansu', Hans Konig, HALI, Issue 138, p.57). Konig suggests that its simplistic form may suggest ties with the palaeoasiatic period but the oldest surviving carpets of this pattern are from Ningxia. One such magnificent example is in the Metropolitan Museum of Art (M.S Dimand and Jean Mailey, Oriental Rugs in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 1973, no.199, p.338 and fig.268 pp.164-5). The colouring of the present rug is however typically East Turkestan; a wool example with very comparable field design is published by Herrmann (Eberhart, Seltene Orientteppiche IV, Munich, 1982, no.98, pp.258-9). The diagonal wave-pattern border, or Yun Tsai T'ou design, splits directions on each side to preserve the carpet’s symmetry.