拍品專文
This magnificent fragment is one of the most attractive of all Kirman 'vase' designs. Both the colours and the design are exemplary. It is in remarkably full pile, which makes it all the more remarkable that no other fragments of this carpet have survived to the present day. The closest comparable piece is a fragment in the Museum fr angewandte Kunst, Vienna (Sarre, E. and Trenkwald, H.: op.cit., vol.I, pl.31, colour detail, or Troll, Siegfried: Altorientalische Teppiche, Vienna, 1951, pl.16, for the full fragment in B/W). This also has scrolling yellow and red interlaced arabesques enclosing floral sprays, but is stiffer and more regimented in concept, lacking the grace of the drawing in this carpet. The Vienna border is again of the same design and colouring but also encompassing floral scrolls, the arabesques being less delicately handled.
Also related in design, and also on a similar blue ground, are two fragments formerly in the McMullan Collection and now in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (McMullan, Joseph V.: Islamic Carpets, New York, 1965, nos.20 and 21, pp.90-91). Another fragment which could be from the same carpet is in the Victoria and Albert Museum (inv. no. 1825-1888). The original from which these fragments came (assuming they are all from the same carpet) lays the freely scrolling arabesques similar to those in the present fragment over tendrils which issue large palmettes and flowerheads similar to those seen in the better represented 'vase and palmette trellis' carpets woven in the same technique. This link between the more usual and the arabesque designs on 'vase' carpets is demonstrated more dramatically by a red-ground example in the Metropolitan Museum of Art (Dimand, M.S. and Bailey, Jean.: Oriental Rugs in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 1973, no.37, fig.104, p.74). Here the weavers began weaving an arabesque design, changing about 18in. into the field into a normal vase, tendril and large palmette triple lattice design, thus demonstrating that both types were woven contemporaneously.
The present fragment has a similar part palmette alongside the border. There is also the remains of another palmette in one corner. This motif, coupled with the other motifs adjoining the long cut through the field, would indicate that it has been cut along an axis of symmetry, thus allowing one mentally to extend but unfortunately not complete this superb carpet.
Also related in design, and also on a similar blue ground, are two fragments formerly in the McMullan Collection and now in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (McMullan, Joseph V.: Islamic Carpets, New York, 1965, nos.20 and 21, pp.90-91). Another fragment which could be from the same carpet is in the Victoria and Albert Museum (inv. no. 1825-1888). The original from which these fragments came (assuming they are all from the same carpet) lays the freely scrolling arabesques similar to those in the present fragment over tendrils which issue large palmettes and flowerheads similar to those seen in the better represented 'vase and palmette trellis' carpets woven in the same technique. This link between the more usual and the arabesque designs on 'vase' carpets is demonstrated more dramatically by a red-ground example in the Metropolitan Museum of Art (Dimand, M.S. and Bailey, Jean.: Oriental Rugs in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 1973, no.37, fig.104, p.74). Here the weavers began weaving an arabesque design, changing about 18in. into the field into a normal vase, tendril and large palmette triple lattice design, thus demonstrating that both types were woven contemporaneously.
The present fragment has a similar part palmette alongside the border. There is also the remains of another palmette in one corner. This motif, coupled with the other motifs adjoining the long cut through the field, would indicate that it has been cut along an axis of symmetry, thus allowing one mentally to extend but unfortunately not complete this superb carpet.