PERSIA, PROBABLY TABRIZ, SECOND HALF 13TH OR EARLY 14TH CENTURY

This Polonaise rug dates from the classic period of their manufacture. It divides panels of different colours with vegetal motifs, i.e. serrated leaves. Unusually for one of these rugs, the scrolling leaves are all executed in metal-thread, while they divide panels of pastel shades of the field. It is much more frequent to encounter metal-thread fields being divided by piled silk vegetal motifs.
One very unusual feature about this rug is the use of a very saturated red colour. This is a colour that is known in a number of "Polonaise" rugs, normally used in small quantities for enhanced dramatic effect as in the large "King Umberto Polonaise" sold in these Rooms, 29 April 1993, lot 432. On a number of rugs this colour is abrashed with a pale buff colour; this is particularly noticeable when these two colours are also used for the wefts, as here. The particularly rare use of this colour seen on the present rug, however, is its use throughout the rug for the outlines of the motifs. Most rugs which have survived to the present day had outlines in black which has now corroded, sometimes being repiled, but otherwise leaving the outlines of the various motifs far less clearly defined than was the case originally.