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Lot Essay
The lot offered here is a typical product of the Spanish manufactury of Cuenca during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. The carpet industry in Spain was a successful commercial enterprise and designs were borrowed from Eastern carpets that were already in Europe; several designs were based on the 'Lotto'carpets. The present lot imitates Cairene carpet designs which ultimately reflected the fashion and influence of the high-style of the Ottoman court. While Cairene carpets generally have a characteristic deep red field, the Cuenca carpet here has remains of a salmon-red field. Sarah B. Sherrill states that salmon-red backgrounds associated with Spanish carpets of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries is a colour that has faded over the years due to the loss of Moorish dyeing skills (Sherrill, Sarah B., Carpets and Rugs of Europe and America, New York, 1996,
p.48). While the design here is a copy of the Cairene one is aware that it is less sophisticated and slightly amature in feeling. The knots are not as tightly woven and thus the design has become more angular rather than having opulent and curvilinear lines. This Spanish cousin of the the original Cairene Carpet is a beautiful surviving example of the seventeenth century Cuenca workshop products.
p.48). While the design here is a copy of the Cairene one is aware that it is less sophisticated and slightly amature in feeling. The knots are not as tightly woven and thus the design has become more angular rather than having opulent and curvilinear lines. This Spanish cousin of the the original Cairene Carpet is a beautiful surviving example of the seventeenth century Cuenca workshop products.