Why this Safavid red-ground ‘Palmette and Bird’ carpet is ‘the collector’s dream’
‘By the 19th century these carpets had become a rare and expensive commodity only available to the very rich,’ says Louise Broadhurst, head of Rugs & Carpets at Christie’s in London. This one — made in the 16th century in what is now Iran — was acquired around 1876 by Baron Edmond James de Rothschild, and has also been owned by Gordon P. Getty
Specialist Louise Broadhurst with the Safavid red-ground ‘Palmette and Bird’ carpet, circa 1565-75
The Hôtel de Pontalba is an imposing house situated on the rue du Faubourg Saint-Honoré in Paris, overlooking the Jardins des Champs-Elysées. Today it is the home of the US Ambassador to France, but during the Second French Empire it was owned by Baron Edmond James de Rothschild (1845-1934) and his wife Adelaide (1853-1935), members of the banking dynasty, who filled their golden-stoned mansion with countless treasures.
In the suites of great rooms carefully calibrated in le goût Rothschild style were Dutch paintings, Chinese porcelain, Flemish tapestries, and an exquisite collection of Oriental carpets. One of these, a royal red-ground ‘Palmette and Bird’ carpet, will be offered in Art of the Islamic and Indian Worlds including Rugs and Carpets in London on 26 October 2023.
A royal red-ground ‘Palmette and Bird’ carpet, possibly Qazvin, North Persia, circa 1565-75. 16 ft 9 in x 7 ft 3 in (517 cm x 225 cm). Offered in Art of the Islamic and Indian Worlds including Rugs and Carpets on 26 October 2023 at Christie’s in London
Woven in the imperial workshops in Qazvin (in modern-day Iran) between 1565 and 1575, during the reign of Shah Tahmasp I (1514-1576), the 16th-century masterpiece is, according to Louise Broadhurst, Christie’s head of Rugs & Carpets, ‘an exceptional survivor’, having travelled from Iran through Europe, the United States and Asia.
Knotted and entwined with spiralling vines and palmettes, the rich burgundy-red carpet features birds thought to be pheasants with elongated plumes, and cascades of flowers framed by a deep midnight-blue border. There are 17 colours woven into the fabric, ‘a mesmerising kaleidoscope’, says Broadhurst, who notes that the technical skill required to fix and make stable natural dyes that have lasted for more than 400 years is ‘quite exceptional’.
Depicted among the swirls of intertwined vines, palmettes and cascading flowers are long-plumed birds thought to be pheasants
The carpet’s 17 richly dyed colours have lasted for more than 400 years, indicating a level of technical expertise that is ‘quite exceptional’
Though originally made for the Safavid dynasty, carpets of this kind soon became highly prized items in the royal courts of Europe. By the 17th century, paintings of noblemen by Dutch and Flemish masters would often include depictions of Persian carpets to indicate their subjects’ wealth, status and cultivation.
Pieter van Anraedt (1635-78), Six Regents and the Housemaster of the Oudezijds Institute for the Outdoor Relief of the Poor, Amsterdam, 1675 . Oil on canvas. 237 x 425 cm. Rijksmuseum. On loan from the City of Amsterdam
They were particularly prized for their rich iridescence, created by weaving silk through the foundation of the carpet; but silk is very fragile and prone to deterioration. ‘By the 19th century these carpets had become a rare and expensive commodity only available to the very rich,’ says the specialist.
It is thought that the Rothschilds bought their carpet from the fashionable art and antiquities dealer Joseph Duveen around 1876. Responsible for filling the houses of financiers and industrialists with the finest decorative arts, Duveen was an advisor to the Fricks, the Rockefellers, the Rothschilds and the Vanderbilts.
Built in 1839, the Hôtel de Pontalba in Paris was the home of Baron Edmond James de Rothschild. It is now the residence of the US Ambassador to France
When Edmond de Rothschild died, in 1934, many of his treasures (among them some 40,000 Old Master drawings) were donated to the Louvre in Paris. The house remained as part of the Rothschild estate, although it was later requisitioned by Hermann Göring during the Second World War to serve as his Luftwaffe officers’ club.
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The carpet was sold in the 1970s, some three decades after the Hôtel de Pontalba had been acquired by the United States’ diplomatic mission in Paris. It has since been owned by the Vatican’s financier Roberto Calvi, nicknamed ‘God’s Banker’, who died in mysterious circumstances in London in 1982, and by the American businessman and composer Gordon P. Getty.
Broadhurst describes the carpet as ‘the collector’s dream’, adding that ‘Carpets bring to life a collection — they have a story behind them that perhaps other works of art can’t portray.’
Explore Islamic and Indian Art Week at Christie’s in London, October 2023