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拍品專文
This extraordinarily rare carpet is one of just seven complete Ming 'Dragon' carpets that exist outside of China. In total, there are considered to be around a hundred coveted survivors of the so-called Beijing-type that are believed to be the product of a specific Imperial workshop in Beijing that most likely started in the 15th century and continued until the middle of the 17th century. Today, exactly half of these are in the Palace Museum in Beijing, the remainder of which were dispersed over the years and are now in various collections around the world. Of the one hundred examples that survive, only thirty-six carpets bear the imagery of the imperial dragon, twenty-eight of which were woven for the main halls. Of those in the Palace Museum collection, just nine are complete, and the remaining fifteen are incomplete or are smaller fragments. We know of twelve 'Dragon' carpets that have since been dispersed outside China, of which seven are complete and the remaining five are fragmentary.
During the Ming Period (1368-1644), the arts were highly developed in many areas, including the manufacture of knotted carpets, reaching its zenith under the emperor Wanli (1573-1619). Wanli ordered, at huge expense, the extensive refurbishment during the latter part of the sixteenth century of the palace which almost bankrupted China with its extravagance. The Great Palace carpets of Beijing form the most significant group of imperial carpets extant: they are the oldest imperial carpets that can be associated directly with a royal or imperial palace, as well as standing out as some of the greatest carpets surviving today. Woven for the halls of the Forbidden City, they did not become known in the West – and even then not widely – until the early twentieth century. Photographic images of the Forbidden City taken by Kazumasa Ogawa in 1906, demonstrate that during winter all the stone floors of the Great Halls were entirely covered with carpets of this particular type which appear to only have been made for the Imperial Palaces. Over the centuries numerous rooms had been damaged or destroyed by fire and these were tirelessly rebuilt but always remained faithful to the original 15th century style set out by the Yongle emperor.
The large-scale Palace carpets that were intended for the floor were woven with a particularly thick and heavy weave with large asymmetrical knots that were wider and higher than average. The pile yarns consist of coarsely spun wool which result in a thick and compact pile which are extremely strong and stable and have a greater resistance to wear, which was also minimised by the soft silk slippers that were worn by those in the palace at the time. Despite the relatively low knot count, the weavers were able to execute wonderfully curvaceous forms, as seen in the present dragons and peonies, by using a 'packing' knot (M. Franses, op.cit. p.189). Here the weaver would skillfully insert an additional, more tightly spun knot between the regular knots, without any additional wefting, allowing a continuous, fluid line of design.
Form and Function
Carpets were integral to the architecture of the Forbidden Palace and were made in a variety of shapes and forms to accommodate the Kang (a heated platform) on which the throne was placed, supportive columns and other architectural elements. The present carpet illustrates this perfectly. Originally it was woven with an intentional rectangular indentation in the lower right hand quarter of the field which would have accommodated a particular architectural formation or piece of palace furniture, such as a throne. At some point in the nineteenth century a rectangular section was woven to fill the space making it easier to display. The new section was designed with a fifth 'Qi' dragon, a mirror image of the dragon in the lower left hand corner of the same carpet. A related double-dragon carpet in the Palace Museum displays cut semi-circles to each side of the carpet which would have fit around two large columns and the half profile of four further columns can be seen along the bottom. (Palace Museum, Beijing, inv. no. 212242). A further shaped dais cover, depicting double dragons chasing a seed pearl can be found in the museum, (Palace Museum, Beijing, Classics of the Forbidden City: Carpets in the Collection of the Palace Museum, text by Liu Baojian and Yuan Hongpi, Beijing, 2010, pp. 42-3). A dais cover of trapezoidal form but with a single dragon, formerly in the collection of Mrs Benjamin Moore, sold Christie's London, 17 December 1993, lot 19.
Dragons
The designs of the Great Palace carpets include the ornaments used extensively within the interior decoration, often mirroring the ceilings and architecture of the pavilions for which they were made. A number of the surviving carpets display the figures of a dragon or dragons. Widely depicted in all mediums of Chinese art, dragons are legendary creatures generally portrayed as a long snake-like, scaly, wingless body with four legs terminating in claws and expressive, fanciful heads with wild manes, long whiskers and horns.
The imagery on the present carpet however is quite different with its display of what are considered to be 'Qi' or 'Archaistic' dragons that are quite the opposite of the fierce, mature 'long' dragon, seen writhing across the field in other examples. The ancient 'Qi' symbol signifies 'life force' which is believed to permeate all living material in both nature and the universe. The bodies of the five 'Qi' dragons, intended to be viewed from the same direction, are composed of cloud-like scrolls or swirls. They have lost their ferocious claws, their faces are formed with a phoenix-like beak, two small hooked horns and an almond-shaped eye, while their tails branch and taper into a soft scroll. The archaistic dragon is seen in the decoration of Chinese bronzes from the Shang dynasty, which became a popular motif on archaistic wares in a variety of media. The dragon, which has a hooked snout, is always shown in profile with only one leg visible. Such depictions on carpets are rare but can be seen on a small Ming dais cover, formerly in the collection of Wendel and Diane Swan, exhibited at the Textile Museum, Washington D.C., 2003; sold Sotheby’s, New York, 13 December 2007, lot 44, now in the MATAM collection, Milan.
Colour
Like almost all of the Ming Palace carpets, the present carpet has lost its original intense red colour. The background colour is now a pale yellow but was originally likely a dark Ming Imperial red dye, similar to Ming lacquer that can be seen on the columns in the Hall of Supreme Harmony, but which has since oxidised. Ming Imperial red was created by firstly dying the wool with a yellow dye from the saf flower, allowing that to dry and then over dying the skeins of wool with a red dye made from brazilwood. Over the centuries the red dye oxidised and, whilst exposed to air year on year, the red gradually disappeared. This is common with almost all the Palace carpets, although four examples in the Palace Museum collection in Beijing have retained their original colour, perhaps a different dye formula was employed. By the time of the Qing dynasty (1636-1912) the Imperial colour was yellow and by the end of the 17th century this had become the dominant background colour for the carpets.
Certainly, during the 1920’s some Beijing-workshop carpets of the Imperial-type were sold by the Palace and reached western collections. One such Imperial 'Dragon' carpet was reportedly one of three carpets bought in 1920 during an extended honeymoon trip to China by Mrs Alexander Moore (nee Emery, Cincinnati, Ohio 1894-1983) who married Benjamin Moore, a New York Lawyer, where they bought many Chinese works of art for their new home. Auctioned in America in 1987, it was bought by a Swiss collector, until it was sold in Christie's Paris, 23 November 2021, lot 224.
The largest carpet known to have left the Palace, is the famous Tiffany carpet, reportedly last used in China in the private temple of the Empress Dowager Cixi which originally measured nearly 10 x 10 meters and was made in three parts to fit around the columns of an unknown hall. Having been reduced in size at a few different stages, the carpet sold Christie’s, New York, 14 October 2020, lot 20 for a record price at the time. A small fragment of that carpet was bought by Hans König and is part of the collection, see lot 144 in the present sale. Only one Beijing Imperial Throne carpet is reportedly known to have been sold personally by the Emperor and that was to the famous banker J. P. Morgan between 1910-1913. In 1913, G. Griffin Lewis wrote, ‘ It is one of the most celebrated and costly rugs in America.’ That carpet later appeared in auction in New York in 1962. In 1986, an Imperial Ming carpet with floral design was sold at the Mona Bismarck sale in Monte Carlo.
A two dragon Imperial Palace carpet from the Wanli period, that was exhibited in Beijing in 1992 and missing its primary borders and with sections re-woven, was sold in The Exceptional Sale, Christie’s, New York, 11 December 2014, lot 8. The pair to that carpet remains in the Palace Museum and retains some of the original fret and scrolling leaf borders. Another fragment, lacking its main borders, with a single forward-facing dragon above a seed pearl set up on a back drop of clouds, formerly part of the collection of the late Jim Dixon, sold Bonhams Skinner, Boston, 4 May 2022, lot 50. A small section from an Imperial dragon carpet, was sold Sotheby's New York, 3 June 1989, lot 7. Another sold in 1993 with restorations and was sold again in 2011. A section from an Imperial throne platform cover with dragons was sold in 2006. Also in the same year, a section from the cover of the small raised throne platform from the Hall of Supreme Harmony was sold in New York.
This magnificent imperial carpet is testament to the majesty and artistic achievements created during the Ming dynasty. Its rarity, beauty and historical importance are remarkable and its state of preservation exceptional.
During the Ming Period (1368-1644), the arts were highly developed in many areas, including the manufacture of knotted carpets, reaching its zenith under the emperor Wanli (1573-1619). Wanli ordered, at huge expense, the extensive refurbishment during the latter part of the sixteenth century of the palace which almost bankrupted China with its extravagance. The Great Palace carpets of Beijing form the most significant group of imperial carpets extant: they are the oldest imperial carpets that can be associated directly with a royal or imperial palace, as well as standing out as some of the greatest carpets surviving today. Woven for the halls of the Forbidden City, they did not become known in the West – and even then not widely – until the early twentieth century. Photographic images of the Forbidden City taken by Kazumasa Ogawa in 1906, demonstrate that during winter all the stone floors of the Great Halls were entirely covered with carpets of this particular type which appear to only have been made for the Imperial Palaces. Over the centuries numerous rooms had been damaged or destroyed by fire and these were tirelessly rebuilt but always remained faithful to the original 15th century style set out by the Yongle emperor.
The large-scale Palace carpets that were intended for the floor were woven with a particularly thick and heavy weave with large asymmetrical knots that were wider and higher than average. The pile yarns consist of coarsely spun wool which result in a thick and compact pile which are extremely strong and stable and have a greater resistance to wear, which was also minimised by the soft silk slippers that were worn by those in the palace at the time. Despite the relatively low knot count, the weavers were able to execute wonderfully curvaceous forms, as seen in the present dragons and peonies, by using a 'packing' knot (M. Franses, op.cit. p.189). Here the weaver would skillfully insert an additional, more tightly spun knot between the regular knots, without any additional wefting, allowing a continuous, fluid line of design.
Form and Function
Carpets were integral to the architecture of the Forbidden Palace and were made in a variety of shapes and forms to accommodate the Kang (a heated platform) on which the throne was placed, supportive columns and other architectural elements. The present carpet illustrates this perfectly. Originally it was woven with an intentional rectangular indentation in the lower right hand quarter of the field which would have accommodated a particular architectural formation or piece of palace furniture, such as a throne. At some point in the nineteenth century a rectangular section was woven to fill the space making it easier to display. The new section was designed with a fifth 'Qi' dragon, a mirror image of the dragon in the lower left hand corner of the same carpet. A related double-dragon carpet in the Palace Museum displays cut semi-circles to each side of the carpet which would have fit around two large columns and the half profile of four further columns can be seen along the bottom. (Palace Museum, Beijing, inv. no. 212242). A further shaped dais cover, depicting double dragons chasing a seed pearl can be found in the museum, (Palace Museum, Beijing, Classics of the Forbidden City: Carpets in the Collection of the Palace Museum, text by Liu Baojian and Yuan Hongpi, Beijing, 2010, pp. 42-3). A dais cover of trapezoidal form but with a single dragon, formerly in the collection of Mrs Benjamin Moore, sold Christie's London, 17 December 1993, lot 19.
Dragons
The designs of the Great Palace carpets include the ornaments used extensively within the interior decoration, often mirroring the ceilings and architecture of the pavilions for which they were made. A number of the surviving carpets display the figures of a dragon or dragons. Widely depicted in all mediums of Chinese art, dragons are legendary creatures generally portrayed as a long snake-like, scaly, wingless body with four legs terminating in claws and expressive, fanciful heads with wild manes, long whiskers and horns.
The imagery on the present carpet however is quite different with its display of what are considered to be 'Qi' or 'Archaistic' dragons that are quite the opposite of the fierce, mature 'long' dragon, seen writhing across the field in other examples. The ancient 'Qi' symbol signifies 'life force' which is believed to permeate all living material in both nature and the universe. The bodies of the five 'Qi' dragons, intended to be viewed from the same direction, are composed of cloud-like scrolls or swirls. They have lost their ferocious claws, their faces are formed with a phoenix-like beak, two small hooked horns and an almond-shaped eye, while their tails branch and taper into a soft scroll. The archaistic dragon is seen in the decoration of Chinese bronzes from the Shang dynasty, which became a popular motif on archaistic wares in a variety of media. The dragon, which has a hooked snout, is always shown in profile with only one leg visible. Such depictions on carpets are rare but can be seen on a small Ming dais cover, formerly in the collection of Wendel and Diane Swan, exhibited at the Textile Museum, Washington D.C., 2003; sold Sotheby’s, New York, 13 December 2007, lot 44, now in the MATAM collection, Milan.
Colour
Like almost all of the Ming Palace carpets, the present carpet has lost its original intense red colour. The background colour is now a pale yellow but was originally likely a dark Ming Imperial red dye, similar to Ming lacquer that can be seen on the columns in the Hall of Supreme Harmony, but which has since oxidised. Ming Imperial red was created by firstly dying the wool with a yellow dye from the saf flower, allowing that to dry and then over dying the skeins of wool with a red dye made from brazilwood. Over the centuries the red dye oxidised and, whilst exposed to air year on year, the red gradually disappeared. This is common with almost all the Palace carpets, although four examples in the Palace Museum collection in Beijing have retained their original colour, perhaps a different dye formula was employed. By the time of the Qing dynasty (1636-1912) the Imperial colour was yellow and by the end of the 17th century this had become the dominant background colour for the carpets.
Certainly, during the 1920’s some Beijing-workshop carpets of the Imperial-type were sold by the Palace and reached western collections. One such Imperial 'Dragon' carpet was reportedly one of three carpets bought in 1920 during an extended honeymoon trip to China by Mrs Alexander Moore (nee Emery, Cincinnati, Ohio 1894-1983) who married Benjamin Moore, a New York Lawyer, where they bought many Chinese works of art for their new home. Auctioned in America in 1987, it was bought by a Swiss collector, until it was sold in Christie's Paris, 23 November 2021, lot 224.
The largest carpet known to have left the Palace, is the famous Tiffany carpet, reportedly last used in China in the private temple of the Empress Dowager Cixi which originally measured nearly 10 x 10 meters and was made in three parts to fit around the columns of an unknown hall. Having been reduced in size at a few different stages, the carpet sold Christie’s, New York, 14 October 2020, lot 20 for a record price at the time. A small fragment of that carpet was bought by Hans König and is part of the collection, see lot 144 in the present sale. Only one Beijing Imperial Throne carpet is reportedly known to have been sold personally by the Emperor and that was to the famous banker J. P. Morgan between 1910-1913. In 1913, G. Griffin Lewis wrote, ‘ It is one of the most celebrated and costly rugs in America.’ That carpet later appeared in auction in New York in 1962. In 1986, an Imperial Ming carpet with floral design was sold at the Mona Bismarck sale in Monte Carlo.
A two dragon Imperial Palace carpet from the Wanli period, that was exhibited in Beijing in 1992 and missing its primary borders and with sections re-woven, was sold in The Exceptional Sale, Christie’s, New York, 11 December 2014, lot 8. The pair to that carpet remains in the Palace Museum and retains some of the original fret and scrolling leaf borders. Another fragment, lacking its main borders, with a single forward-facing dragon above a seed pearl set up on a back drop of clouds, formerly part of the collection of the late Jim Dixon, sold Bonhams Skinner, Boston, 4 May 2022, lot 50. A small section from an Imperial dragon carpet, was sold Sotheby's New York, 3 June 1989, lot 7. Another sold in 1993 with restorations and was sold again in 2011. A section from an Imperial throne platform cover with dragons was sold in 2006. Also in the same year, a section from the cover of the small raised throne platform from the Hall of Supreme Harmony was sold in New York.
This magnificent imperial carpet is testament to the majesty and artistic achievements created during the Ming dynasty. Its rarity, beauty and historical importance are remarkable and its state of preservation exceptional.