AN IMPERIAL RUSSIAN PILE AND TAPESTRY-WOVEN CARPET
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AN IMPERIAL RUSSIAN PILE AND TAPESTRY-WOVEN CARPET

IMPERIAL WORKSHOPS, ST. PETERSBURG, CIRCA 1790

Details
AN IMPERIAL RUSSIAN PILE AND TAPESTRY-WOVEN CARPET
IMPERIAL WORKSHOPS, ST. PETERSBURG, CIRCA 1790
Having a central panel depicting a flowering basket with birds on an ivory field with a delicate trellis and sunflowers in each corner, all within a cream border of a polychrome floral garland
Approximately 10 ft. 10 in. x 8 ft. 5 in. (330 cm. x 257 cm.)
Provenance
‌Acquired from S. Franses, London by Ann and Gordon Getty in 1996.
Special notice
Please note lots marked with a square will be moved to Christie’s Fine Art Storage Services (CFASS in Red Hook, Brooklyn) on the last day of the sale. Lots are not available for collection at Christie’s Fine Art Storage Services until after the third business day following the sale. All lots will be stored free of charge for 30 days from the auction date at Christie’s Rockefeller Center or Christie’s Fine Art Storage Services (CFASS in Red Hook, Brooklyn). Operation hours for collection from either location are from 9.30 am to 5.00 pm, Monday-Friday. After 30 days from the auction date property may be moved at Christie’s discretion. Please contact Post-Sale Services to confirm the location of your property prior to collection. Lots may not be collected during the day of their move to Christie’s Fine Art Storage Services (CFASS in Red Hook, Brooklyn). Please consult the Lot Collection Notice for collection information.

Brought to you by

Elizabeth Seigel
Elizabeth Seigel Vice President, Specialist, Head of Private and Iconic Collections

Lot Essay

The Imperial Tapestry Factory was established in 1716 in the vicinity of St. Petersburg by Peter the Great (reigned 1682-1725) and produced tapestries as well as flat-woven and knotted pile carpets for the court. Trained by weavers from the Gobelins manufactory in Paris, these carpets reflect both the French techniques and taste that was preferred in the decorative arts during the reign of Peter the Great and his successors through the 19th century.
It is rare to find the combination of flat-woven and a knotted pile techniques in examples from this period from Russia. The use of both techniques is used to great effect whereby the ivory ground is flat-woven with a delicate and subtle trellis design that allows the pile-woven center panel of a flowering basket with perched birds and the border of a lush mixed-flower garland to be more prominent and textural.
A pile woven Bessarabian carpet with a similar central panel of a lush flowering basket on a simple trellis ground, also with a lush floral garland border was sold at Christie’s London, 5 June 2017, lot 162. A flat woven example with a central landscape panel and lush garland border, possibly from St. Petersburg, sold Sotheby’s New York, 1 June 2006, lot 208.

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