NORTH CHINA, LATE 17TH OR EARLY 18TH CENTURY

This rug is very similar to a 17th century Chinese rug offered to T.J. Larkin whilst in China. He recorded it and others like it as being the prototype for many of the designs we see in Chinese carpets today, (T.J.Larkin, A Collection of Antique Chinese rugs, London, 1910, p.25, quoted by H.A. Lorentz, A View of Chinese Rugs from the Seventeenth to the Twentieth Century, Netherlands, 1972, p.83-4). Two other examples from this group were sold in these Rooms, Battilossi Tappeti D'Antiquariato, 11 February 1998, lot 78 and 118.

Most contemporary examples either had a fret medallion and spandrels within a fret border or a stylised dragon or floral field design within a peony border (H.A. Lorentz, op cit pls. 27, 28, 30; see also Glanz der Himmelssöhne, Kaiserliche Teppiche aus China 1400-1750, exhibition catalogue, Cologne, 2005, pls.34, 35). This rug has unusually combined motifs from both groups.