Lot Essay
The Kashkuli were one of many carpet weaving tribes in the Qashqai confederacy but one of few who produced carpets that were not strictly of tribal design, (James Opie, Tribal Rugs of Southern Persia, Portland, 1981, p.13). The curvilinear forms of the palmettes and the flowering vine in the present lot echo designs found in the carpets of nearby Kirman, particularly in the treatment of the tracery vine within the spandrels. The carpets of the Kashkuli can also be identified by their use of finely spun wefts, very often of silk (Opie, ibid, p.16). A closely related example is illustrated on the catalogue back cover of Rippon Boswell, 25 May 2013, lot 147 and one with a lighter blue field and ivory angular floral spray border is illustrated by Eberhart Herrmann, Seltene Orientteppiche, Von Konya Bis Kokand, III, Munich, 1981, p.152, no.9