Rug of the Week Carpet #21055

Persian Rug #21055, size 18’0″ x 10’10”

Antique Northeast Persian Carpet

Khorassan Province

Later 18^th Century

Khorassan was a truly enormous Persian province, once extending all the way to the Oxus River, bordering on  true Central Asia. Even After the eastern parts were lost in the Afghan invasion after 1722, the province still encompassed vast areas of desert and steppe with important cities like Meshed and productive farmland. Carpet weaving in the area goes back centuries with Herat, the old capital and now in Afghanistan, famous in the 16^th century for its fine rugs. Our antique Persian carpet is not from Herat, but was probably woven in the area around Qain (the Qainat) or more likely in the town itself as it has, as we shall see, all the marks of an urban production of the period.

After the fall of the Persian Safavid ruling dynasty in 1722, there was a decided fall off in patronage as the nation descended into invasions and disorder.  As a result, the remaining carpet workshops cut costs to survive and this meant, among other things, the elaborate medallion designs and the designers who conceived them were replaced by repeating patterns derived from textiles which could be easily and elegantly executed in pieces of any size or format. Thus appeared the now iconically Persian Herati, Gol Hennai, Mina Khani and Boteh patterns. Our design is a particularly felicitous variant on the Gol Hennai pattern.  A primary diamond lattice is formed by a repeat of four cypresses or leaves framing a large rosette and smaller rosette bosses uniting the cypresses. A thinner, secondary lozenge lattice connects the cypresses and large rosettes. This pattern is found in both northeast and northwest Persian rugs, runner and large carpets.  As to where it originated, that is unsure, but by the early 19^th century it was in use both in Khorassan and in Azerbaijan in early antique Heriz carpets. In both areas light grounds, ivory as here, were the preferred overall tonalities.

The red-orange main border with in and out main palmettes, sickle leaves and smaller rosettes, all linked by double angular vines seems to appear about the same time as the field pattern, and the navy blue connected “S” guards are frequent accompaniments in both weaving areas. In sum, our 21055 is a perfect embodiment of a period style. Khorassan would thus seem to be the place of origin for the field /border design combination around 1750 or so.

The size and perfection of execution as indicated by the pattern balance in all directions implies an experienced and highly professional workshop working for discerning patrons who expected an artistically and technically superior product. Although many Persian carpets of the period are long and narrow, there are certainly exceptions and 21055 clearly predates the period of Western export demand.

The foundation is all cotton and the woolen pile is tied with the Khorassan version of the jufti knot (on four warps rather than two), giving a lighter handle than usual. In a culture where only unshod feet touch a carpet, this still gives plenty of wearability. Our piece is in good condition for its age and proper care will give it many more years of attractive appearance. All the colours are from natural sources; indigo for the blue and either madder or cochineal for the reds. Yes, you can make oranges from cochineal.

There are very few carpets of this post-Classic period surviving, especially in this large size and ultra-desirable colour scheme. Our carpet 21055 is a particularly attractive solution of a perennial question: how to cover a large floor area without excess busyness, keeping formality without rigidity and authenticity without making an overt issue of it.

Antique English Square Needlepoint Carpet

Needlepoint Carpet,size 15’0″ x 15’10”

French and English Victorian period needlework carpets are quite similar in both technique and in the repeating circle and square patterns, but English rugs are more often in light tones, as here, with seven rows and seven columns on an ivory ground. A square foliate/floriate lattice encloses several varieties of verdant bouquets, each of which is encircled by a laurel wreath. Roses are prominent among the seasonal English garden flowers in the bouquets. Smaller bouquets, in two alternating styles, are positioned at the crossing points of the lattice. There is no border beyond the lattice line. Each row of bouquets mixes several styles, giving a sense of variety. No two similar bouquets directly repeat either vertically or horizontally. Some bouquets are rotated 180 degrees. The colors of each bouquet type remain invariant throughout the carpet. Modular, repeating designs were popular in antique Victorian needlework carpets, and this allowed variations in size and format to be easily accommodated. Similarly, borders could mix and match with different field patterns.  Carpets were often the work of several embroiderers, each working on a separate square. The squares were subsequently joined and the joints covered by further stitchery.

By the late 19^th century, the saturated, dense tonalities of European needlework carpets were beginning to give way to lighter palettes, and this is especially evident in antique English needlework carpets.

Carpet 40-3796 has been lined and is in good condition.

Rug of the Week

Tekke Turkmen Rug, size 5’3″ x 4’0″

Tekke Turkmen Ensi

Middle 19^th Century

How can an antique Tekke Ensi be special? There must be a zillion of them (or more). But this not your grandfather’s Tekke Ensi. In fact, this rug is at a whole ‘another level. Take a good look and follow our list of special points. And these are not the only differentiating features. The more you look, the more you see. Our list includes:

1. The rare extra vertical panels repeating the main border design in the field quarters.
2. The apparently unique addition of horizontal bands in the same pattern above and below the central crossbar.
3. The unusual “bulls eye” spandrel panels which are more in the Yomud style than the (very usual) Tekke manner.
4. The extremely fine weave of around 220 knots per square inch.
5. The extremely wide jewel tone color palette including pale yellow, burnt apricot, two reds (blood red and warm madder), two cochineals, three blues (including an exceptional midnight), dark brown, dark green, ivory, brown; generally way wider than the usual six color Ensis.
6. The points on the central three vertical columns in section of the central axis.
7. Dots edging the stylized flower heads in the border.
8. The quincunx details in the top border.
9. The unusual triple lozenge fillers in the “mihrab” between the spandrels.

Probably a whole lot more of subtle details. This rug was not a commercial production, churned out ad seriatim by unrelenting Tekke women weavers. The woman who wove it was a true artist and the patron was someone of taste.  Their identities are obviously lost, but their contribution remains. This rug is a true labour of love.

The Ensi was supposedly used as a door rug on the Turk men round felt tent or yurt. Some examples still retain hanging ropes in the top corners, but our does not, and it is slightly taller than the usual antique examples, Bigger rug, bigger door, bigger tent, more important person. Some local big shot from around Merv just across from the Persian border who wanted the best. The work is exacting, the result truly collectible. There are other antique Tekke ensis, some older, some more archaic in design, but we have yet to find a similar gesamtkunstwerke

Rugs of the Week

Two vintage mid-20th century Ecuadorian Carpets Designed by Olga Fisch.

Of Hungarian origin, Olga Fisch(1901-1991) emigrated in 1933, first to Morocco and in 1939 to Ecuador, head of the political instability  wracking Europe. Already an artist and collector of folk art, Fisch quickly took to the local arts and crafts available in the Quito markets. She was inspired by primitive, folk and paleolithic cave art and established a workshop creating knotted pile carpets to her individualistic and unique designs. The firm continues today, as does the museum of (primarily) Ecuadorian folk art. Only domestic sheep wool is employed and the rugs are firmly symmetrically (Turkish) knotted on a cotton foundation at a density of 60,000 knots per square metre or about 40 knots per square inch.  It takes four weavers about six weeks to complete a 9’ by 12’ carpet.

Our two carpets, both from the 1950’s, are in her most popular and iconic -patterns. Number 21953 (12’ by 16)’ in the “Caverna” pattern, displays, on an ivory ground, and without borders, an agitated congeries of stick figures of hunters and prey, primarily deer, adapted from the Paleolithic cave paintings of Lascaux, discovered in 1940 and incredibly influential in mid-century art. Whereas most examples are in the 9’ by 12’ or 10’ by 13’ formats, this is certainly one of the largest renderings of the pattern. The increased size allows the larger hunters and animals free movement, and increases the impact of the individual figures. Small variants were also woven, with only a few animals, also on a beige ground.

Our other carpet, number 21802 (11.0 x 13.4) is a rare oval creation with the “Cabalito”  pattern inspired by  the folk embroidery on the “danzantes’ participants in the Corpus Christi processions from Cotopaxi, Ecuador. A number of these costumes are in the Olga Fisch Folk Art Museum in Quito. The pattern densely fills the ivory field with mobile figures, horses and vegetal motives. It is reminiscent of certain Greek Island women’s costume embroideries. Often the “Cabalito” pattern occupies an oval or lobed section  on an otherwise plain rectangular carpet, but here is the pattern takes up almost all of the oval,  with its energetic filigree of figures, fauna and flora.

Other popular Olga Fisch patterns include the “Churos” design with angular discrete spirals on a subtly tones beige ground, a study in mid-century minimalism with only dark brown as an accent colour.

Olga Fisch carpets are as 1950’s modern as they get and our examples cry out for the right Danish or Swedish modern furniture as their perfect accompaniments. Some Italian Murano glass table objects won’t hurt either. A Neutra or Schindler house in the Los Angeles hills is definitely the perfect context, but any mid-century ranch house is certainly welcoming.

Ecuadorian Rug #21802, size 13’4″ x 11’0″

 

Ecuadorian Rug #21953, size 16’0″ x 12’0″

 

 

 

Rugs of the Week

Donegal  vs. Oushak

Donegal rug #18754 size 11’6″x10’4″

Oushaks rug#19239 size 15’0″x12’10”

Clash of the Carpets

Battle of the bands? How about a combat of the carpets? Who is original and who is derivative? Who copied whom and who inspired whom? Which came first? We date the Turkish Oushak 19239  as c. 1880 or somewhat later, while the Irish Donegal 18754  was woven right around 1900. Oushaks employing selected Persian design motives were essentially introduced by the predecessors of Oriental Carpet Manufacturers (OCM) when they took over the production of export oriented workshops, certainly in the late 19^th century. Irish production seems to have begun around 1898, Oushaks were certainly available as prototypes. Oushak carpets, actually woven mostly in Smyrna on the west coast of Turkey, were simplified in design, stripped of extraneous ornament, to facilitate quicker, cheaper production. Wool in both Ireland and Ottoman Turkey was abundant and labor was cheap.  Coarse carpets were easy to design, easy to weave and could be priced reasonably.

The design vocabulary certainly overlaps: bold palmettes, flowering racemes in field and border, angular arabesque segments. If anything, the Donegal carpet is graphically stronger than its Turkish compere. Both the designers of each have eliminated extraneous ornament and enlarged what they retained. Less was certainly more. The Donegal  carpet employs chunky Persian booths on the arabesques while the Oushak borrows equally Iranian weeping willows.  The palette of the Donegal is wider, with ochre, grass green, dark blue and ivory, while the Oushak hits hard with a striking gold border. Interestingly, the outer flame-like narrow border has been cleverly adopted and adapted from the peripheries of the medallions on 17^th century Oushak carpets made for export to Europe.

Could the places of origin be reversed? Red dominates in both carpets, a warm and expansive red.

So, which rug is better? Put them in adjacent rooms. Their folly, directly appealing styles easily mesh. Both types borrow and the only question is whether you prefer one borrowing to another. Both work with modern furniture, especially those pieces where the wood itself is given prominence , a George  Nakashima table, perhaps.

Rug of the Week

Antique Peking Chinese Landscape Pictorial Carpet.

Rug #23194 7’8 x 5’2″ Chinese Peking

Chinese painting goes back at least to the early centuries AD, on wall and portable on silk scrolls. It has been, at least from the 10^th century under the Sung Dynasty, most esteemed when landscape is the primary subject matter. Figure painting, especially in the Chinning Dynasty ancestor portraits, has been a decidedly secondary consideration and the latter really are not considered art at all by rigorous Chinese connoisseurs.  Landscape (shan/shui, mountain and water) is the true goal of the artist.  But painting are not intended to be true representations, but landscapes of the mind, abstracted, formalized, idealized. Landscape painting has affected other Chinese art media: porcelain, jade and hard stone carving, lacquer work, snuff bottles, textiles, literally everything. That it has been a carpet design source is obviously predictable.

Our antique Peking Chinese carpet number 23194 (7’8″ x 5’2″) is a prime example of this influence.  The anonymous Chinese designer, clearly familiar with hanging scrolls, has put a painting on a pile rug. Among the traditional motives are: an arched stone bridge, a similarly arched brick storage building with round top double doors (probably a granary), a wine shop flying a banner announcing that it is open for business, a rustic gazebo on a promontory, a two level pavilion further back on the hill, various iconic vegetation like grape vines and pine branches, and multi color swirling, knotted clouds. Conspicuous by their absence are munchkinoid humanoid figures: the ambling scholar with his staff, the fisherman in his cockleshell boat, the leisured gentleman taking in the scene from one of the airy buildings. The season looks like summer and this is no surprise since the home of painting for centuries was the old capital of Nanjing, a warm, subtropical city.

The color scheme of number 23194 is warm, with a gold ground in harmony with the secondary blue tones. Were it a classic blue and white antique Peking carpet, the effect would be significantly cooler. This rug comes right at the viewer and is laded with exotic, anecdotal charm. Peking Chinese pictorial rugs are often room size and depict fantasy palaces ensconced amid lakes and mountains, in both blue and white, and poly chrome, as here, palettes. The Chinese designer drew on a bottomless reservoir of interchangeable design elements to produce an unmistakably oriental creation. The rug was woven in the first quarter of the 20^th century for the American market. So where do you put the furniture? A chair on the bridge? A coffee table on the wine shop? A floor lamp on the gazebo?  Or give it some breathing room and use it as a window (on the floor!) into a lost, imaginary time and place.

 

Rugs of the Week

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.

Rug #20753 Chinese-Art Deco 11’3″ x 8’10”

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.

Rug #22129 Chinese-Art Deco 14’4″ x 9’0″

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.

Rug #22174 Chinese-Art Deco 8’10” x 6’0″

Rug #22208 Chinese-Art Deco 11’8″ x 9’0″

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.

 

Rugs of the Week (Akstafa,Shirvan)

Two Very Interesting Caucasian Long Rugs.

#19752 Akstafa Rug, 4’0″ x 10’10”

#21711 Shirvan Rug , 3’8″ x 11’0″

Our Caucasian Blog only briefly sketched the range of types from this mountainous region of a thousand languages and ethnicity. Here are a couple a particularly interesting pieces that help to expand on our remarks.

Good things do not last at Rahmanan! Somebody else may be interested in these rugs, but you still have a chance. Anyway, you can still see why attention should be paid. Consider the Akstafa. Our Caucasian Rug blog of last week did not mention Akstafa as a distinct type. Indeed, nobody did until the 1980’s.Located and regular between  Gendje and  Shirvan,  this highly individual weaving district seems to have almost exclusively specialized in just two rug types: a long rug, as here, with pairs of peacocks around eight-point medallions, on navy or brown-black fields, with a close scatter of smaller geometric devices. The more variety in these elements, the better the rug. Since our example has a particularly dense fill, it must be, and is very good. A true work of folk art. The other Akstafa design appears on prayer design rugs of smaller format and is usually an allover boteh (paisley) pattern. Both types employ the same ivory border with hooked squares. Akstafa seems not to have woven scatter rugs. Do not cut these artistically intriguing long rugs to make scatters!.

Rug no. 21711 (3.8 by 11.0) is a particularly fine example from a rare group of mid-19^th century Shirvan long rugs, almost always with radiant blue, more or less open, grounds. A few simple geometric devices scarcely interrupt the open window character of the long royal blue ground. One can virtually step through it, into…….This rug is the aesthetic antithesis of the Akstafa, saying a lot with very little. Minimalist modern art has nothing  on this piece.Neither rug is more valid, more beautiful than the other. This Shirvan long  rug, one of a select group of no more than a few dozen known examples, employs, as almost all the others do, a poly chrome border of triangles, the so-called ‘Dragon’ pattern, which to our eyes looks more like a parade of wedgie shoes! So call it the colorful wedgie shoe border. Several examples of this select group are dated before 1850, and no. 19711 may be significantly older than our ultra-conservative attribution. The weave is neat, even  and regular

Are these rugs collectible? If you want to hang them vertically,then better have a mansion or country estate with tall ceilings, or you can roll them out for carpet aficionados to drool over. Or you can just treat them right and live with them and love them. What’s not to like?

Details of rugs.

#19752 Askstafa Rug

#19752 Askstafa Rug

#21711 Shirvan Rug

#21711 Shirvan Rug