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拍品專文
The knot count is approximately 11V x 11H per cm. sq.
The Armenian workshops of the Koum Kapi area of Istanbul were responsible for the production of arguably the most beautiful silk carpets of the 20th century, inspired by the renewed interest in and publication of the classical weavings of the 16th and 17th century. The design of the present rug is copied from the famous Clam Gallus carpet in the Österreichisches Museum für angewandte Kunst in Vienna, Inv. no. T 9026/1941, a 16th century Safavid carpet woven in Herat in North East Persia. The Clam Gallus carpet was published in all the important carpet publications of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, such as The Vienna Book (lot 1 in the present sale), F.R. Martin, A History of Oriental Carpets before 1800, Vienna, 1908 and Sarre and Trenkwald, Old Oriental Carpets, Vienna and Liepzig, 1926. Interestingly, in each of these publications only a quarter of the carpet was illustrated and it is this truncation in the coloured plates that explains the proportions of the present rug.
The quality of the weaving and drawing of the present lot is exceptional. The finesse of the rug brings to mind the best production of the workshop of the master weaver Zareh Penyamin (see lot 110 in the present sale). However, the signature is not that of Zareh but rather that of an unknown master and is found in the very centre of the rug, in a star-shaped cartouche, worked in blue silk on a metal-thread ground. The intricacy of the flat woven metal-thread details across the rug, supplemented with coloured silk, are exquisite (please see the detail on p.8) and very similar to the two spectacular unsigned Koum Kapi carpets sold in these Rooms on 24 April 2012, lot 50 and the 23 April 2013, lot 25. The appearance of this new signature raises two questions; are the carpets that we would usually attribute to Zareh Penyamin on the grounds of their quality in fact are the work of an entirely different master and how many master weavers are we yet to discover?
The Armenian workshops of the Koum Kapi area of Istanbul were responsible for the production of arguably the most beautiful silk carpets of the 20th century, inspired by the renewed interest in and publication of the classical weavings of the 16th and 17th century. The design of the present rug is copied from the famous Clam Gallus carpet in the Österreichisches Museum für angewandte Kunst in Vienna, Inv. no. T 9026/1941, a 16th century Safavid carpet woven in Herat in North East Persia. The Clam Gallus carpet was published in all the important carpet publications of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, such as The Vienna Book (lot 1 in the present sale), F.R. Martin, A History of Oriental Carpets before 1800, Vienna, 1908 and Sarre and Trenkwald, Old Oriental Carpets, Vienna and Liepzig, 1926. Interestingly, in each of these publications only a quarter of the carpet was illustrated and it is this truncation in the coloured plates that explains the proportions of the present rug.
The quality of the weaving and drawing of the present lot is exceptional. The finesse of the rug brings to mind the best production of the workshop of the master weaver Zareh Penyamin (see lot 110 in the present sale). However, the signature is not that of Zareh but rather that of an unknown master and is found in the very centre of the rug, in a star-shaped cartouche, worked in blue silk on a metal-thread ground. The intricacy of the flat woven metal-thread details across the rug, supplemented with coloured silk, are exquisite (please see the detail on p.8) and very similar to the two spectacular unsigned Koum Kapi carpets sold in these Rooms on 24 April 2012, lot 50 and the 23 April 2013, lot 25. The appearance of this new signature raises two questions; are the carpets that we would usually attribute to Zareh Penyamin on the grounds of their quality in fact are the work of an entirely different master and how many master weavers are we yet to discover?