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Lot Essay
This is a previously unpublished fragment from a vase carpet well known in the literature. The other fragments are in the Musée Historique in Lyon (Hali 33, p.48); the Philadelphia Museum of Art; the Islamic Museum in Berlin; the Iparmüvészeti Museum, Budapest; and the St. Louis Art Museum. The Hali reference gives references to the publications of the others. It also notes a sixth fragment in a private collection which might be this, but might be a further, seventh, fragment from this carpet.
This fragment is beautifully drawn, with its elegant lattice overlaying spiralling vine, and with very well delineated cloudbands in the interstices. It is another example of the superb designs that were created in Kirman carpets through the seventeenth century. It is a design that, probably due to the publication of the Berlin fragment in F. R. Martin's hugely influential 1908 book A History of Oriental Carpets before 1800, was reproduced very frequently, if slightly simplified, finding particular popularity in India. For a good example please see lot 111 in this sale.
This fragment is beautifully drawn, with its elegant lattice overlaying spiralling vine, and with very well delineated cloudbands in the interstices. It is another example of the superb designs that were created in Kirman carpets through the seventeenth century. It is a design that, probably due to the publication of the Berlin fragment in F. R. Martin's hugely influential 1908 book A History of Oriental Carpets before 1800, was reproduced very frequently, if slightly simplified, finding particular popularity in India. For a good example please see lot 111 in this sale.