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Lot Essay
The oasis town of Kashgar in the Tarim Basin was an important crossroads on the ancient trade route of the Silk Road, a position which exposed its artisans to many artistic and cultural styles, including Greek, Roman, Byzantine, Persian, Indian, Chinese and Mongol. These diverse influences, combined with native Turkic styles, produced some of the most beautiful and mysterious examples of the carpet arts. The highly stylized lozenge-leaf lattice and flowering branch motif of this carpet proved extremely popular, although there has been much speculation as to its origins. Suggestions have included derivation from seventeenth- and eighteenth-century Mughal Indian carpets, Persian Herat rugs, patterns from Chinese silks and porcelain, or simply that the design is indigenous to the Tarim river basin.
Michael Franses discusses this particular group of floral carpets in his article 'Silk Pile Covers from Western China' First Under Heaven: The Art of Asia, Hali Annual Four, 1997, pp. 103-104. Although their designs vary, he notes the similarities between the soft colouring found in the carpets of this group, which is particularly evident in the present lot, to that of a group of early 17th century Isfahan carpets known as 'Polonaise'. Franses also notes, that unlike the present example, many of the early Kashgar pieces were woven in wool.
An excerpt written by an 18th century contemporary, published by Hans Bidder, (Carpets from Eastern Turkestan, Tübingen, 1964, p.24) records that, "..In the Turki city of Kashgar there live in great luxury many courtesans,.....there are also other more respectable people who excel in the weaving of silk carpets embroidered in gold and silver, and of five-coloured pile carpets".
A silk piled carpet using the same silver and gold metal-thread ground as the present lot appeared in an auction held by the American Art Association in New York of the V. & L. Benguiat Collection of, "Rare Old Rugs, Tapestries and Textiles", 4-5 December 1925, lot 54. Although slightly larger in size and with a more formal and structured lattice design than the present lot, there are many similarities between the two. A second example with a variant lozenge leaf lattice but with a much more comparable border of angular, linked vine enclosing single flowerheads, appeared in the same sale (lot 27) and was catalogued as a "Samarcand, XVII century".
Michael Franses discusses this particular group of floral carpets in his article 'Silk Pile Covers from Western China' First Under Heaven: The Art of Asia, Hali Annual Four, 1997, pp. 103-104. Although their designs vary, he notes the similarities between the soft colouring found in the carpets of this group, which is particularly evident in the present lot, to that of a group of early 17th century Isfahan carpets known as 'Polonaise'. Franses also notes, that unlike the present example, many of the early Kashgar pieces were woven in wool.
An excerpt written by an 18th century contemporary, published by Hans Bidder, (Carpets from Eastern Turkestan, Tübingen, 1964, p.24) records that, "..In the Turki city of Kashgar there live in great luxury many courtesans,.....there are also other more respectable people who excel in the weaving of silk carpets embroidered in gold and silver, and of five-coloured pile carpets".
A silk piled carpet using the same silver and gold metal-thread ground as the present lot appeared in an auction held by the American Art Association in New York of the V. & L. Benguiat Collection of, "Rare Old Rugs, Tapestries and Textiles", 4-5 December 1925, lot 54. Although slightly larger in size and with a more formal and structured lattice design than the present lot, there are many similarities between the two. A second example with a variant lozenge leaf lattice but with a much more comparable border of angular, linked vine enclosing single flowerheads, appeared in the same sale (lot 27) and was catalogued as a "Samarcand, XVII century".