Lot Essay
In his discussion of dragon carpets Ellis has a very useful key to the various animals which inhabit the strange lattices seen on this magnificent group of carpets (Ellis, Charles Grant: Early Caucasian Rugs, Washington D.C., 1976, p.14). The dragon carpet offered here has all the various animals he describes: the dragons clearly visible within the black field enclosed by the red and yellow serrated branches, the fighting lion and chilin animal group with which it alternates, and pheasant above the duck on the red serrated panels. It also has paired confronted peacocks and addorsed running deer in the field panels down the central axis. Both Ellis and Yetkin (Serare: Early Caucasian Carpets in Turkey, London, 1978, pp.9-16) use this plethora of animals, and in particular the more recognisable forms in which they appear, as one of the indications of carpets which were made at the beginning of the production. Yetkin further divides this 'archaic group' into two parts, one of which is typified by having only two dragons across its width and filling the dragons with small dotted motifs. Many but not all of this sub-group are also noted for their dark brown fields. Other related black ground examples of this early 'archaic' group are in a private collection in Genoa (Yetkin, op.cit., pl.122), the Victoria and Albert Museum (Yetkin, op.cit., pl.123), and a group of three fragments from the same carpet in the Textile Museum (Ellis, op.cit., pl.2; and Volkmann, Martin: Alte Orientteppiche; Ausgewhlte Stcke aus deutscher Privatsammlungen, Munich, 1985, no.10, pp.34-35).
The appearance of this design in a form which is already somewhat stylised begs questions about its origin. Some of the animal combat groups can be clearly seen in Safavid paintings and bookcovers of the late 16th and early 17th century (Haldane, Duncan: Islamic Bookbindings in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, 1983, no.106, pp.110-111, for example). Many of the of the classical Caucasian carpets of the seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries can be traced back to 'vase' carpets of the seventeenth century. The lattice used in these carpets itself relates to the lattice of vase carpets (Ellis, op. cit, pp.12-13), but already in the present early dragon carpet the colouring of the serrated panels means that the overlay play of the lattice has been lost. What a vase technique version of this would have looked like we can only speculate!
See also lot 272 for a blue ground dragon carpet of unusual type.
The appearance of this design in a form which is already somewhat stylised begs questions about its origin. Some of the animal combat groups can be clearly seen in Safavid paintings and bookcovers of the late 16th and early 17th century (Haldane, Duncan: Islamic Bookbindings in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, 1983, no.106, pp.110-111, for example). Many of the of the classical Caucasian carpets of the seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries can be traced back to 'vase' carpets of the seventeenth century. The lattice used in these carpets itself relates to the lattice of vase carpets (Ellis, op. cit, pp.12-13), but already in the present early dragon carpet the colouring of the serrated panels means that the overlay play of the lattice has been lost. What a vase technique version of this would have looked like we can only speculate!
See also lot 272 for a blue ground dragon carpet of unusual type.