SECOND HALF 18TH CENTURY

The field design on the present lot derives originally from the tree carpets woven in south east Persia in the 'vase' technique. As with many other examples from this group, later versions were woven in north west Persia. The immediate north west Persian prototype of the present rug was previously part of the collection of the Berlin Museum but which was lost in 1945 (K. Erdmann, Seven Hundred Years of Oriental Carpets, London, 1970, fig 176, p.140). The drawing on the Berlin carpet was more curvilinear with slightly less stylisation of the design. It also had a red ground. A fragmentary carpet with an identical field design to the present carpet, on an indigo ground, was in the Museum für Angewandte Kunst, Vienna, but was sadly destroyed in the Second World War (F. Sarre and H. Trenkwald, Alt-Orientalische Teppiche, Vienna and Leipzig, 1926, vol.1, pl.43).

From its border design the present rug might have been thought to have been woven in the Caucasus. The structure however, with both cotton warps and wefts, confirms a north west Persian origin. The structure is indeed similar to that of the garden carpets from the same region which include the design of the present carpet in their borders. The group is discussed by Christine Klose, 'Betrachtungen zu Nordwestpersischen Gartenteppichen des 18. Jahrhunderts', HALI, vol.1, no.2, 1978, pp.112-121, and by Kurt Erdmann (op. cit., pp.66-70).