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Lot Essay
There has long been a fascination with the symbolism of the dragon and its depiction in carpet weaving. The design of ‘Dragon’ carpets consists of a field pattern composed of different coloured overlaid lattices formed of pointed, serrated leaves creating intersecting lozenges, which alternately contain palmettes and are flanked by confronting stylised dragons, birds or animal figures. The earliest ‘Dragon’ carpets include dragon motifs with birds and running animals, relatively naturalistically drawn, which stand either alone or in confronting pairs facing a tree. The Graf carpet, originally found in a Damascene mosque, now in the Islamiches Museum, Berlin, is considered to be the oldest example of this type, see Şerare Yetkin, (Early Caucasian Carpets in Turkey, Vol. II, London, 1978, p.8, fig.118).
The design of this carpet corresponds with the final phase of the evolution of the Caucasian 'Dragon' carpet as outlined by Charles Grant Ellis, (Early Caucasian Rugs, Washington D.C., 1975). In this group the lattice is relaxed, the design breaks up into abstract palmettes and the dragons are reduced to serpentine lines. In the present example the lattice disperses in the top half of the carpet as the weaver loosened the design increasingly as the carpet progressed. The palmettes appear to float and small animals and figures populate the field. The design is closely related to a carpet shown by Werner Grote Hasenbalg (Berlin 1922, vol.II, pl.25, attributed to Armenia) and two further examples in Istanbul illustrated in Yetkin (op.cit. pl.21 - an incomplete example in the Turk ve Islam Eserleri Museum, Inv.no.97 - and pl.151, once with the Anglo Persian Carpet Co. in London).
The flower and single-bud border of the present carpet is a variant of a border design originally seen on 'Vase' technique carpets, as seen on a fragment in the Staatliches Museum für Völkerkunde, Munich, Inv. no.32-50-18, (Yetkin, op.cit., p.84, fig.218). It appears on numerous 'Dragon' carpets, including the Graf carpet and an important early 'Archaic Dragon' carpet with a more unusual brown field in a private collection in Genoa, Italy, (Yetkin, op.cit. pl.122, p.13), but is also found on carpets of other designs including those of floral decoration.
The design of this carpet corresponds with the final phase of the evolution of the Caucasian 'Dragon' carpet as outlined by Charles Grant Ellis, (Early Caucasian Rugs, Washington D.C., 1975). In this group the lattice is relaxed, the design breaks up into abstract palmettes and the dragons are reduced to serpentine lines. In the present example the lattice disperses in the top half of the carpet as the weaver loosened the design increasingly as the carpet progressed. The palmettes appear to float and small animals and figures populate the field. The design is closely related to a carpet shown by Werner Grote Hasenbalg (Berlin 1922, vol.II, pl.25, attributed to Armenia) and two further examples in Istanbul illustrated in Yetkin (op.cit. pl.21 - an incomplete example in the Turk ve Islam Eserleri Museum, Inv.no.97 - and pl.151, once with the Anglo Persian Carpet Co. in London).
The flower and single-bud border of the present carpet is a variant of a border design originally seen on 'Vase' technique carpets, as seen on a fragment in the Staatliches Museum für Völkerkunde, Munich, Inv. no.32-50-18, (Yetkin, op.cit., p.84, fig.218). It appears on numerous 'Dragon' carpets, including the Graf carpet and an important early 'Archaic Dragon' carpet with a more unusual brown field in a private collection in Genoa, Italy, (Yetkin, op.cit. pl.122, p.13), but is also found on carpets of other designs including those of floral decoration.