NORTH CHINA, LATE 18TH CENTURY

Although carpets appear in 13th century Mongol paintings, wool carpets do not belong originally to the Chinese art of that period but to the culture of the outer Mongolian and Muslim provinces. This changed by the end of the 17th century when the Chinese Empire was extended by the Emperor Kangxi. He was fascinated by the carpets woven in Ningxia, and by the turn of the 17th/18th century a Chinese style of wool carpets assimilating Chinese art and culture had begun to develop (Michael Franses, "Early Ninghsia Carpets", HALI, vol.5, no.2, 1982, p.133 and 144).

It is extremely rare to find a surviving pair of Chinese runners that pre-date the mid-nineteenth century. The subtle charm of the present pair is embodied in the popular pattern of ascending scrolling leafy vine interspersed with elegant peonies; significant in the Chinese design vocabulary as a sign of Spring, good fortune and love (Hallvard Kåre Kuløy, Tibetan Rugs, Bangkok, 1982, p.53). The pattern, as with all Chinese carpets, does not present the design as an endless repeat on which the border is superimposed as a frame, but rather is complete and contained within the field with a narrow undecorated strip all around. A 17th century example which uses an almost identical design, although with a slightly darker palette, is published by H. A. Lorentz (A View of Chinese Rugs from the seventeenth to the twentieth century, London & Boston, 1972, pl.21, p.108). A comparable example but with the inclusion of a central fretwork medallion was with E. Herrmann, Asiatische Teppich-und textilkunst, Band 4, Munich 1992, pp.58-9, pl.24. A further example but lacking the blue swastika border and earlier in date than the present lot, is published by John J. Eskenazi (Il Tappeto Orientale Turin, 1987, pl.321, p.471), and a delicate yellow ground runner with the same overall ascending scrolling leaf pattern, dated to the 18th century, is in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London (inv.no.T.255-1926).