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Lot Essay
The inspiration for the present lot is the prized pashmina piled Indian millefleurs prayer rugs that were most likely produced in Kashmir in the second half of the 18th century (Daniel Walker, Flowers Underfoot, New York, 1997, p.129). With the increasingly strong Indian stylistic influence seen in all the arts of Persia, it is unsurprising that relatively quickly local adaptations began to appear. The use of a corrosive green for certain details, the tonality of the red, and the blue cotton wefts are all indicative of the group woven in Fereghan although the design within the group shows considerable variation.
The earliest Persian examples of this design share a vase resting on a flat base with a leafy 'wing' to each side, and a large upper radiating flowerhead, as seen on a Persian rug in the Victoria and Albert Museum, dated to the 18th century and tentatively attributed to Shiraz (Jenny Housego, 'Eighteenth Century Persian Carpets', Oriental Carpet and Textile Studies III, Part 1, London, 1987, pl.6, p.43; also Encyclopaedia Iranica, vol.IV, New York, 2000, pl.CXIII, p.867). A comparable example sold in these Rooms, 15 April 2010, lot 104. The design of the present rug is less densely filled than those and the flowering stems are more sinuous and appear to hang laden with their blossom. The execution of the entwined arabesques that fill the spandrels on the present rug, together with the scrolling leaf and palmette guard stripe and the ornate decorative vase that sits centrally at the base of the field with the absence of the earlier 'wings', are characteristics closely related to another of the group, formerly in a private Belgian collection, which sold in these Rooms, 6 October 2015, lot 50. A rug with a similar fluidity of drawing, unusually displayed on a pale red field rather than deep midnight-blue, sold at Lefevre and Partners, London, 26 May 1978, lot 33.
The earliest Persian examples of this design share a vase resting on a flat base with a leafy 'wing' to each side, and a large upper radiating flowerhead, as seen on a Persian rug in the Victoria and Albert Museum, dated to the 18th century and tentatively attributed to Shiraz (Jenny Housego, 'Eighteenth Century Persian Carpets', Oriental Carpet and Textile Studies III, Part 1, London, 1987, pl.6, p.43; also Encyclopaedia Iranica, vol.IV, New York, 2000, pl.CXIII, p.867). A comparable example sold in these Rooms, 15 April 2010, lot 104. The design of the present rug is less densely filled than those and the flowering stems are more sinuous and appear to hang laden with their blossom. The execution of the entwined arabesques that fill the spandrels on the present rug, together with the scrolling leaf and palmette guard stripe and the ornate decorative vase that sits centrally at the base of the field with the absence of the earlier 'wings', are characteristics closely related to another of the group, formerly in a private Belgian collection, which sold in these Rooms, 6 October 2015, lot 50. A rug with a similar fluidity of drawing, unusually displayed on a pale red field rather than deep midnight-blue, sold at Lefevre and Partners, London, 26 May 1978, lot 33.