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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. This same design appears on a series of early (105 AD) wood carvings which were excavated from the ruins of Niya, once a major commercial centre 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, (see lot 280 in this sale), the present carpet has a mirrored design along the central vertical axis displaying a vase at either end, each issuing an ascending tree hung with ripe pomegranates. A closely related Yarkand carpet set upon the same rare golden-yellow field, displaying a light green branched lattice hung with red pomegranates, rather than blue as in the present lot, enclosed within the same red border of individual polychrome rosettes, is part of the MATAM collection, published by Moshe Tabibnia, Intrecci Cinesi: Antica Arte Tessile XV-XIX, Milan, 2011, pp.220-21. pl.54. There are two further Yarkand carpets in the same collection, one with a sky-blue field with an entirely red trellis,(Tabibnia, op.cit. pp.222-3, pl.55), the other, formerly part of the Doris Duke collection, with an abrashed aqua-green field with a yellow trellis and red fruits, (op.cit, pl.53). The treatment of the vases on that carpet differs to ours however, in that they are more rounded and squat in form, and the stylised pomegranates on the branched trellis are less recognisable than in other examples. The border on that carpet features the same 'cloud-head' motif as found on lot 282 in the present sale.
The pomegranate design was used in other weaving centres within the Tarim Basin, as seen on a related Khotan carpet of more classic colouring, with a yellow trellis bearing red pomegranates set upon an inky-blue ground but with an additional pierced polychrome trellis border and greater length, offered as part of The Bernheimer Collection, Christie's, London, 14 February 1996, lot 68. A smaller rug, with a 'cloud head' border but only a single pomegranate-vase in the field was sold in these Rooms, 14 October 2004, lot 28.
Sometimes drawn with a single vase, (see lot 280 in this sale), the present carpet has a mirrored design along the central vertical axis displaying a vase at either end, each issuing an ascending tree hung with ripe pomegranates. A closely related Yarkand carpet set upon the same rare golden-yellow field, displaying a light green branched lattice hung with red pomegranates, rather than blue as in the present lot, enclosed within the same red border of individual polychrome rosettes, is part of the MATAM collection, published by Moshe Tabibnia, Intrecci Cinesi: Antica Arte Tessile XV-XIX, Milan, 2011, pp.220-21. pl.54. There are two further Yarkand carpets in the same collection, one with a sky-blue field with an entirely red trellis,(Tabibnia, op.cit. pp.222-3, pl.55), the other, formerly part of the Doris Duke collection, with an abrashed aqua-green field with a yellow trellis and red fruits, (op.cit, pl.53). The treatment of the vases on that carpet differs to ours however, in that they are more rounded and squat in form, and the stylised pomegranates on the branched trellis are less recognisable than in other examples. The border on that carpet features the same 'cloud-head' motif as found on lot 282 in the present sale.
The pomegranate design was used in other weaving centres within the Tarim Basin, as seen on a related Khotan carpet of more classic colouring, with a yellow trellis bearing red pomegranates set upon an inky-blue ground but with an additional pierced polychrome trellis border and greater length, offered as part of The Bernheimer Collection, Christie's, London, 14 February 1996, lot 68. A smaller rug, with a 'cloud head' border but only a single pomegranate-vase in the field was sold in these Rooms, 14 October 2004, lot 28.