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Lot Essay
The stylised pomegranate tree design is well documented as symbolising fertility within East Turkestan carpets, and can be traced within this region as far back as 2000 years. The design appears on a series of early (105 AD) wood carvings which were excavated from the ruins of Niya, once a major commercial center on the Silk Road on the southern edge of the Tarim Basin, China. It also appears frequently in religious Christian works as well as Oriental textiles, (Hans Bidder, Carpets from Eastern Turkestan, Tubingen, 1979, pp.49-53).
Sometimes drawn with a single vase, the present carpet has a mirrored design displaying two vases at either end, each issuing a vertically rising tree fruiting ripe pomegranates. This is elegantly defined against the pale blue abrashed field and is one of the rarer colour combinations to be found in the group. Perhaps the closest comparable can be found in the MARTA collection, Milan, published Moshe Tabibnia, Intrecci Cinesi, Antica Arte Tessile VX-XIX Secolo, exhibition catalogue, Milan, 2011, pl.55, pp.222-23. Another similarly coloured silk Yarkand is illustrated by Sandra Whitman and Erica Yao, 'Carpets at the Crossroads', Hali 25 Years, July/August 2004, p.63, fig.12. Further comparable examples are illustrated in Freiderich Spuhler, 'East Turkestan Silk Carpets', The Thyssen Bornemisza Collection, pp.196-7, pl.50; Hans Konig, Alte Orientteppiche, Munich, 1978, fig.105, pp.236-7, and a carpet sold in Davide Halevim, Magnificent Carpets and Tapestries, in these Rooms, 14 February 2001, lot 40.
Very often the condition of these silk carpets has suffered and can thus appear very worn. This is not the case in the present carpet where the condition is remarkable, making it one of the best examples to appear at auction in recent years.
Sometimes drawn with a single vase, the present carpet has a mirrored design displaying two vases at either end, each issuing a vertically rising tree fruiting ripe pomegranates. This is elegantly defined against the pale blue abrashed field and is one of the rarer colour combinations to be found in the group. Perhaps the closest comparable can be found in the MARTA collection, Milan, published Moshe Tabibnia, Intrecci Cinesi, Antica Arte Tessile VX-XIX Secolo, exhibition catalogue, Milan, 2011, pl.55, pp.222-23. Another similarly coloured silk Yarkand is illustrated by Sandra Whitman and Erica Yao, 'Carpets at the Crossroads', Hali 25 Years, July/August 2004, p.63, fig.12. Further comparable examples are illustrated in Freiderich Spuhler, 'East Turkestan Silk Carpets', The Thyssen Bornemisza Collection, pp.196-7, pl.50; Hans Konig, Alte Orientteppiche, Munich, 1978, fig.105, pp.236-7, and a carpet sold in Davide Halevim, Magnificent Carpets and Tapestries, in these Rooms, 14 February 2001, lot 40.
Very often the condition of these silk carpets has suffered and can thus appear very worn. This is not the case in the present carpet where the condition is remarkable, making it one of the best examples to appear at auction in recent years.