.jpg?w=1)
.jpg?w=1)
.jpg?w=1)
.jpg?w=1)
Lot Essay
The knot count measures approximately 9V x 9H per cm. sq.
In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, it became fashionable in Iran to commission Kirman carpets with designs taken from European sources. The design of our carpet derives from a tapestry ‘La danse d’une nymphe, de la droite’, part of a suite of eight tapestries originally made for Louis XIV at the Royal Gobelins Manufactory after the drawings by Raphael (1483-1520). The cartoon for this particular scene was painted by Alexandre Ubeleski (1649-1718) now in the Louvre, (Inv. 6666). The complete set of eight tapestries were woven on three separate occasions for Louis XIV, between 1686 and 1704. The present scene depicts Pomona with Vertumnus in the guise of a faun, playing the pipes of the fertility god, Pan, next to a plinth supporting a vase with festive putti overhead, all in a verdant landscape evoking Arcadia, the idyllic home of Pan. For a Louis XIV Gobelins tapestry of this cartoon, see The Collection Akram Ojjeh, Christie’s Monaco, 11th -12th December 1999, lot 150.
A copy of this tapestry hung in the Public Rooms of Nasir al-Din Shah Qajar (1848-1898) at the Golestan Palace in Tehran and was surely the inspiration for the series of Kirman carpets using this design in a variety of sizes. Comparable carpets woven on this imposing scale, include one in a private collection in Lebanon woven for Khosrow Khan Bakhtiari, Sardar Zafar, who was governor of the province of Kirman and Baluchistan and a distant cousin to Sardar Mohtasham Bakhtiari, who commissioned another which was sold by Christie's New York, 13 April 2017, lot 246. A large carpet but with a mirrored design, ordered by Sardar Asad, Farmanfarma, appointed Governor of Kirman and Belouchistan (1919-20), sold in these Rooms, 29 April 2004, lot 50 and an imposing large-scale carpet is displayed in The Carpet Museum of Iran in Tehran (No. 111), which has an additional group of putti.
The inscription on the pedestal base of the present carpet refers to Mohammad-Reza Khan Sardar-e Fateh (1885-1934), the ninth son of Emamqoli Khan, known as Haji Ilkani, and the father of Saphur Baktiar (b.1914), the last prime minister of Mohammed-Reza Shah Pahlavi, (Encyclopaedia Iranica, Vol.III, New York, 2000, p.549). Mohammad Reza commissioned the present carpet as well as the carpet sold in Christie's New York, 2005 and another in London 19 April 2016, lot 58. All were woven in the workshop of the Master weaver, 'Ali Kirmani, (1877-1901), later titled ‘Ali Honari, who is recorded as one of the most skilled carpet weavers of Kirman and can be considered the best of the late Qajar period.
Other examples with the same design, yet mirrored or smaller, have sold more frequently and include one sold at Christie's London, 19 April 2016, lot 58. While the design is quite faithfully copied across those examples mentioned previously, there are some divergences in the decoration within the borders. The present carpet is unique amongst all of the known examples in that it displays a royal blue vase at its center where as all of the others are golden yellow.
In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, it became fashionable in Iran to commission Kirman carpets with designs taken from European sources. The design of our carpet derives from a tapestry ‘La danse d’une nymphe, de la droite’, part of a suite of eight tapestries originally made for Louis XIV at the Royal Gobelins Manufactory after the drawings by Raphael (1483-1520). The cartoon for this particular scene was painted by Alexandre Ubeleski (1649-1718) now in the Louvre, (Inv. 6666). The complete set of eight tapestries were woven on three separate occasions for Louis XIV, between 1686 and 1704. The present scene depicts Pomona with Vertumnus in the guise of a faun, playing the pipes of the fertility god, Pan, next to a plinth supporting a vase with festive putti overhead, all in a verdant landscape evoking Arcadia, the idyllic home of Pan. For a Louis XIV Gobelins tapestry of this cartoon, see The Collection Akram Ojjeh, Christie’s Monaco, 11th -12th December 1999, lot 150.
A copy of this tapestry hung in the Public Rooms of Nasir al-Din Shah Qajar (1848-1898) at the Golestan Palace in Tehran and was surely the inspiration for the series of Kirman carpets using this design in a variety of sizes. Comparable carpets woven on this imposing scale, include one in a private collection in Lebanon woven for Khosrow Khan Bakhtiari, Sardar Zafar, who was governor of the province of Kirman and Baluchistan and a distant cousin to Sardar Mohtasham Bakhtiari, who commissioned another which was sold by Christie's New York, 13 April 2017, lot 246. A large carpet but with a mirrored design, ordered by Sardar Asad, Farmanfarma, appointed Governor of Kirman and Belouchistan (1919-20), sold in these Rooms, 29 April 2004, lot 50 and an imposing large-scale carpet is displayed in The Carpet Museum of Iran in Tehran (No. 111), which has an additional group of putti.
The inscription on the pedestal base of the present carpet refers to Mohammad-Reza Khan Sardar-e Fateh (1885-1934), the ninth son of Emamqoli Khan, known as Haji Ilkani, and the father of Saphur Baktiar (b.1914), the last prime minister of Mohammed-Reza Shah Pahlavi, (Encyclopaedia Iranica, Vol.III, New York, 2000, p.549). Mohammad Reza commissioned the present carpet as well as the carpet sold in Christie's New York, 2005 and another in London 19 April 2016, lot 58. All were woven in the workshop of the Master weaver, 'Ali Kirmani, (1877-1901), later titled ‘Ali Honari, who is recorded as one of the most skilled carpet weavers of Kirman and can be considered the best of the late Qajar period.
Other examples with the same design, yet mirrored or smaller, have sold more frequently and include one sold at Christie's London, 19 April 2016, lot 58. While the design is quite faithfully copied across those examples mentioned previously, there are some divergences in the decoration within the borders. The present carpet is unique amongst all of the known examples in that it displays a royal blue vase at its center where as all of the others are golden yellow.