Antique Art Deco Chinese Carpets.
The color mavens at the Pantone Color Institute have settled on a hue for 2017: “Greenery” (no. 15-0343), a grassy , welcoming green, with a touch of yellow and not at all deep or foresty. Now, you want to be a courant in your carpet taste. You want, you have to have a green-Greenery rug. What to do? You come to Rahmanan Antique and Decorative! To find what?
First, a bit of background. Antique Persian carpets are never in this shade or anywhere near it. Natural dyes (a combination of indigo blue and weld yellow, for example), simply cannot produce it. The only antique oriental carpets with truly green fields are either Turkish Oushaks or Art Deco Chinese Tientsin (Tianjin) pieces. In both cases, the green is synthetic, derived from dyes of European origin (likely Swiss or German). Leaving aside the Turkish carpets for another blog, let’s look at a few GREEEEEEN Chinese pieces.
Rahmanan has, by a long margin, the largest selection/collection of room sized antique Art Deco Chinese carpets in the universe. Period. Therefore, it has the biggest and best assortment of GREEN Deco Chinese carpets. We have selected four for closer consideration. Two are border less, two with simple, basically monochrome frames.
Number 20753 (8.10 by 11.3) is a c. 1930 Nichols production with an open green field, complex flower sprays in two opposed corners, and no borders. Even the selvages (edge finishes) are the field tone. Nichols, an American established in Tientsin and selling almost exclusively to the U.S. market in the interwar period, was justly famed for top quality materials and innovative designs. You get a good, big dose of green here.
Another borderless, asymmetrical carpet with a wonderful open green ground close to the 2017 colour pick is Number 22129 (9.10 by 14.4) with an amazing giant peacock in one corner. This is one bird you don’t want to cover with furniture, Art Deco or otherwise. Again, the green is magnificent, rich (but not too rich) and warm.
Two bordered carpets display Chinese objects (porcelain vases, flower pots on stands, hanging lanterns) along with lush sprays and branches of seasonal flowers. Number 22174 (6.0 by 8.10) has a plain peach border and the asymmetrical pattern shows a healthy serving of the right green. Butterflies flit about in addition to the usual Chinese design repertory on Number 22208 (9.2 by 11.6), Again, the green is a delightful background to the just exotic enough décor.
So, you don’t have to feel that style is passing you by. Antique Art Deco Chinese carpets (1920-1935) are incredibly chic, and work perfectly with modern, modern and contemporary furnishings. These carpets are available in great condition and the styles have never been duplicated. And when another color is selected, you can rest assured that there are Deco Chinese pieces to match that hue also.
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