#18355
Chinese, Ning Xia, Platform Carpet
3.99m x 4.06m (13’1” x 13’4”)
2nd half of the18th century.
Structure:
Warp: Cotton, white, natural, Z-4-S
Weft: Cotton, white, natural, Z-4, 2 shoots alternating
Pile: Wool, Z-3 or Z-4, asymmetric knot, 4-5 h. x 6½v. = 27 – 33/in²
Sides: 2 body wraps weft attached and weft wrapped thinly
Ends: No original finish.
This piece has a very close parallel in David Franses’s, Lion-Dog and 100 Antiques Rugs, pl.15, Thyssen – Bornemisza Coll., a platform carpet 3.53 x 3.86m. Both employ a multi-colored cloud wreath surrounding a central rounded medallion of large lion–dog and several cavorting smaller ones. The fields are a similar salmon, but the T-B. piece uses precious objects instead of clouds and lion-dogs; the peonies are virtually identical. The overall effect is quite close. The T.B. piece uses large flower scroll corners instead of close fret scrolls, and in the former they are en-suite with the middle narrow border, which, in turn resembles both inner and main stripes to varying degrees. The T.B. example, however, uses a 3-dimensional swastika fret stripe and an inner band with running dog fret. The other stripe is plain brown in contrast to plain blue in our piece. The knot count in the T.-B. ex. is 6 x 6 = 36/in², roughly in line with ours and characteristic of the period.
The medallion re-appears almost exactly on Franses pl. 14, a lion-dog rug ex. Andonian coll., 2.2 x 3.7m (7.2 x 12.1) with similar wreath and dog-filled roundel, but the field is a diagonal tone-on-tone fret pattern with scattered cranes and peonies. The main border is close to ours, but yellow rather than blue, and there is a swastika fret inner stripe. The other surround is plain blue. Franses dates it similarly, second half of the 18th century. No. structural analysis is given except to indicate cotton foundation, wool pile.
The cloud wreath surrounding a lion-dog medallion seems to be characteristic of large pieces in the second half of the 18th century.
To view this piece on our website, please use the following link:
http://www.rahmanan.com/inventory/show/18355/
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