ISFAHAN, CENTRAL PERSIA, LATE 17TH CENTURY

Unlike the Polonaise in lot 222, this rug does not have panels of different colours bounded by scrolling tendrils with split palmette terminals. In their place is an overall field design which is very similar to that of two wool carpets in the Museu Naçional de Arte Antigua, Lisbon (Ellis, Charles Grant: Oriental Rugs in the Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia, 1988, fig 59b, p.214, attributed to "Agra (?), India, 17th century"). A further carpet of similar design to the Lisbon examples was published by Achdjian (Albert: Le Tapis, Paris, 1949, pl.p.97). This latter carpet apparently is the same as the (by then reduced) example in the estate of Giuseppe Rossi sold Sotheby's London, 12 March, 1999, lot 1541, attributed to 17th century Herat. In their discussion of this latter Sotheby's rug, Hali (104, May/June 1999, auction price guide, p.119), citing "Christie's extensive cataloguing(!)", suggest that a Khorassani origin would be most apt due to the jufti knotting. The present rug, with a fairly secure Isfahan provenance, could indicate that this design too originated in the capital.

This Polonaise rug is unusual in that includes no metal-thread. This feature, coupled with the colouring and the structure, link it to a fragment of a much larger carpet in a private collection which is signed by the weaver Sadeq and dated AH1130 (1717-18 AD) (see Robinson, W.: "Carpets of the Persian Court, 1700-1750", Hali and Oriental Carpet and Textile Studies, in press). This is later than Polonaise carpets are normally dated, but a date at the end of the seventeenth century for the present rug is very probable.