Lot Essay
This is one of four fragments which together comprise almost all of a carpet which is one of the most brilliantly coloured and powerfully drawn in the entire history of Persian carpets. It is also a carpet for which there is no close parallel. The scale of the drawing is remarkable. While the designs can be related to those of other Safavid carpets, it is the size of the individual motifs coupled with the intensity of the various colours which immediately draws the viewer's attention.
There is a notable group of carpets from north west Persia in the 16th century which have a great variety of trees, notably the group relating to the Schwarzenberg carpet (Pope, Arthur Upham: A Survey of Persian Art, Oxford, 1938, pl.1203, together with pls. 1126-1129, 1140-1141 and 1203). None of these however relate in type as closely to the present carpet as do the trees in a carpet made the other end of the country. Both Eskenazi and Franses (Il Tappeto Orientale dal XV al XVIII secolo, London, 1982, pp.43-4) and Professor Alexander (op. cit, p.280) comment on the similarity of the drawing to that of the Jaipur garden carpet. All the design elements can be traced back to that carpet, including each individual tree motif. The Jaipur carpet can be dated with certainty to before 1632 through the Jaipur records. How the design passed from Kirman to north west Persia remains less easy to explain. Eskenazi/Franses point out how some of the group relating to the Schwarzenberg carpet also have technical features which also make them difficult to place; those structures however differ from that of the present carpet. The precise place of manufacture of this carpet therefore remains difficult to define. Multi-ply warps are found in the North West Persian region (see lot 301), as, at a later date, are red wefts. Alan Marcusson, when he advertised this piece, tentatively suggested Bidjar, but more evidence is needed to place it with certainty.
One remarkable feature of this carpet is the alignment of the trees in the various cartouches. Not only do they not follow the normal Perisan rule of all facing the same way, but they do not even all point to the centre or to a particular point, as is found for instance in a number of Indian carpets. The carpet is designed so that, wherever the viewer is placed, some of the cartouches are correctly aligned.
The Robert von Hirsch garden carpet was sold in 1978 as a fragment. From the catalogue illustration it is possible mentally to reconstruct the field of the original carpet; this is done in a drawing in Eskenazi/Franses (op. cit., p.43). The top right hand piece is in the Wher
Collection; the top left hand in the Keir Collection (Robinson, B.W. et al.: Islamic Art in the Keir Collection, London, 1988, no.T28, pp.78-80); while the lower left is in an American collection (Eskenazi/Franses: op.cit, pl.24). The present lot is the lower right hand quadrant (the carpet as sold was lacking the lower half of the lower star panel). Wherever it was produced, it is not surprising that in the HALI 10th anniversary review, this was held by the entirely unbiassed editors to be 'one of the most beautiful objects advertised in 1979.
There is a notable group of carpets from north west Persia in the 16th century which have a great variety of trees, notably the group relating to the Schwarzenberg carpet (Pope, Arthur Upham: A Survey of Persian Art, Oxford, 1938, pl.1203, together with pls. 1126-1129, 1140-1141 and 1203). None of these however relate in type as closely to the present carpet as do the trees in a carpet made the other end of the country. Both Eskenazi and Franses (Il Tappeto Orientale dal XV al XVIII secolo, London, 1982, pp.43-4) and Professor Alexander (op. cit, p.280) comment on the similarity of the drawing to that of the Jaipur garden carpet. All the design elements can be traced back to that carpet, including each individual tree motif. The Jaipur carpet can be dated with certainty to before 1632 through the Jaipur records. How the design passed from Kirman to north west Persia remains less easy to explain. Eskenazi/Franses point out how some of the group relating to the Schwarzenberg carpet also have technical features which also make them difficult to place; those structures however differ from that of the present carpet. The precise place of manufacture of this carpet therefore remains difficult to define. Multi-ply warps are found in the North West Persian region (see lot 301), as, at a later date, are red wefts. Alan Marcusson, when he advertised this piece, tentatively suggested Bidjar, but more evidence is needed to place it with certainty.
One remarkable feature of this carpet is the alignment of the trees in the various cartouches. Not only do they not follow the normal Perisan rule of all facing the same way, but they do not even all point to the centre or to a particular point, as is found for instance in a number of Indian carpets. The carpet is designed so that, wherever the viewer is placed, some of the cartouches are correctly aligned.
The Robert von Hirsch garden carpet was sold in 1978 as a fragment. From the catalogue illustration it is possible mentally to reconstruct the field of the original carpet; this is done in a drawing in Eskenazi/Franses (op. cit., p.43). The top right hand piece is in the Wher
Collection; the top left hand in the Keir Collection (Robinson, B.W. et al.: Islamic Art in the Keir Collection, London, 1988, no.T28, pp.78-80); while the lower left is in an American collection (Eskenazi/Franses: op.cit, pl.24). The present lot is the lower right hand quadrant (the carpet as sold was lacking the lower half of the lower star panel). Wherever it was produced, it is not surprising that in the HALI 10th anniversary review, this was held by the entirely unbiassed editors to be 'one of the most beautiful objects advertised in 1979.