Mid 19th Century Central Asian NingXia Carpet

24013

Ningxia North Central China

17’10”  x 17’10”

C. 1850

Warp: cotton, off white, handspun, Z-4-S

Weft: cotton, off white, handspun, 2 shoots alternating

Pile: wool, 3 strand, handspun

Knot: asymmetric, open left, 48 knots per square inch

Sides: one cord, offwhite cotton wrapped

End: no original finish

This is a particularly large example of a Mandarin official’s carpet with a central medallion displaying nine lion dogs collectively symbolic of success on the national Chin Shih examination which provided guaranteed entry into the national administrative bureaucracy and the wealth devolving therefrom.  The nine lion dogs are a rebus for success in the national bureaucracy. The apricot ground features 11 full or partial rows of tree peonies, flower and stem. This carpet is particularly large and clearly was made for a highly placed official or the wealthy family of a recent graduate of whom great things were expected. The principal was probably Buddhist as indicated by the embroidered ball and precious objects in the medallion. The clouds surrounding the lion dogs form a broken, polychrome circle rather than the usual continuous cloud wreath. This is one of the several features indicating a bespoke order rather than a piece made for the market.

Another indicator is the exceptional size, as the standard square Ningxia Mandarin carpet is about 12 to 14 feet square. The main border continues the color combination, with a now apricot ground and peonies among floral arabesques. The blue inner stripe is unusual with butterflies alternating with paired peaches of longevity. Surrounding the whole is a wide, dark blue plain band. The drawing is balanced in all directions, with nothing cut off or left incomplete.

The medallion has three peony rows below and four above, but it seems well centered.  To have added another row at the bottom would have been technically more correct, but it would have made the carpet less than square, and squareness was an essential requirement. The notion that these square carpets were made for conforming dais platforms can be dismissed on an even cursory look at traditional Chinese houses. There are no daises. The only dais platforms are in the Forbidden City Imperial throne rooms and this is not an Imperial rug.

The condition is extraordinary. Such carpets were woven for the largest room of the house, the ancestor hall, and brought out only on important occasions like funerals, weddings, visits or holidays. Otherwise, they were rolled up and stored away. The handle is particularly thick and solid, and indicates a turn away from the softer and looser characteristic earlier Ningxia weave. Very few large Ningxia carpets are known and even fewer are in this exceptional state of perfect preservation.

The peony is a traditional Chinese carpet design, but it is usually combined with butterflies, bats, fretwork or other elements. The close and allover display of peonies is very unusual. The flower heads reverse direction at the approximate horizontal middle of the carpet. The carpet was originally more of a lacquer red as indicated by the verso. The logwood dye has, as is usual for Chinese carpets, changed to a mellow apricot. 

As is standard, Ningxia carpets are not dated or inscribed, and it would be impossible to ascertain the original patron of the piece.  In any case, his dwelling would have been most substantial with an ancestor hall twenty or more feet in width. The intended owner would have been highly placed in any case.

The exact workshop practices of the dozen or so workshops active at the time are not known, but the weavers, Hui Muslims, worked on vertical looms. Whether they employed partial cartoons for this exceptional piece is unknown, but it surely was well supervised. The central medallion probably had some sort of graphic guide, however.

Written by Dr Peter Saunders.
To view this rug on our website, click here.

Variation of Mandarin Nine Lion Dog Carpet

#20853

Main Hall Carpet

11’9” x 12’

Mid 18^th  Century

Structural Analysis:

Warp:cotton,off-white,natural,Z-4-S,somewhat irregular;

Weft:cotton,off-white,Z-4-S,winder plied, quite irregular;2 shots alternating; wefts thick and soft;

Pile:wool,Z-4;

Knot: PL/0 degrees warp depression/horiz. 6 x vertical 5 = 30 knots per square inch; knots somewhat irregular, some quite thin; [check for T knots along edges]

Sides: two cords each of two body warps, inner directly weft-attached; figure eight sparsely weft yarn wrapped;

Weft/knot ratio: 60/40 wefts predominant.

Remarks:

This is another variant on the popular Mandarin nine lion dog carpet.  The polychrome cloud wreath has exuberant, almost Baroque volutes at the four cardinal points.  The intermediary wreath sections were in field tones and have faded, making the composition rather hard to discern: the wreath would have been more salient before the changes to the long, curved, intermediate sections.

The dominant, dark blue lion dog appears at the top of the medallion and has a wide, particularly expressive face, complete with character creases and a canine snout.  The dog has real personality and individuality, unlike most of the animals in similar carpets. The main dog is alert and lively, with curved and slightly droopy ears.  All the dogs have light colored forepaws and small over pelts.  The creatures are well spaced and not crowded in the medallion.  The protected (protégé) dog is particularly small.  The main dog seems to have no parallels among published carpets and were any to appear, an attribution to the same workshop should be considered.

#18830 NingXia 15’0″ x 15’3″ circa 1770

The corners of the field employ double peony arabesques forming simplified “heart” points at the right angles.  The development here is much more schematic than l8830 and need not indicate the same workshop of origin.  Sprays of tree peonies, butterflies, leafy twigs, fractional tendrils and grassy clusters are spotted throughout the now buff field.

The dark blue peony main border is notable for the rare diagonal corner palmettes from which emanate foliate sprays in both directions in order to make a perfectly symmetric turn.  A bold T-fret inner border in salmon and dark blue has neat T’s in three corners and a single hook in one.  This is a certain indicator, if one is still needed, that no scale paper cartoons were available to the weavers.  Specifically, there was no formal illustration of how to make a fret border turn a corner.

#18355 NingXia 13’6″ x 13’10” circa 1750

As with our other examples, this nine dog main hall carpet was probably woven to the order of a successful Mandarin administrator.  Each of our large lion dog carpets seem to originate in a different shop, although 20853 and l8355 may be more clearly related than the others.  The extreme technical uniformity across the entire local industry deprives us of any unique idiosyncrasies and hence pattern is the sole evidence for differentiation.  One must also keep in mind that the same shop evolved over time, producing different carpets for different clients, changing the design pool when useful and implying a rotating work staff.

To view this rug on our website, click here.

Remarks on 2 Ningxia Daybed Covers or Small K’ang Format Rugs

#19168

Daybed Cover or Small K’ang Format Rug

Ningxia, North Central China

4’8” x 7’6”

Circa 1800

Structural Analysis:

Warp: cotton, off white, natural, Z-4-S, tightly plied;

Weft: cotton, off white, natural, Z-3,4-S, winder plied; two shoots alternating; some sections of weft passages fat and irregular;

Pile: wool, Z-3, Z-4;

Knot: PL/no alternate warp depression/6 per horizontal inch x 5 ½   per vertical inch = 33 per square inch [check for T knots along edges]

Weft/knots: 60/40.

Remarks:

The most interesting aspect of this Ningxia rug is the underlying allover pattern on the salmon buff (originally red) ground. Five scalloped medallions in a 2-1-2 layout are composed of peonies and sprays enclosing central fret elements. The larger, central motif on a yellow ground has peonies and sprays matching those of the lemon-yellow main border. Here the central device centers on a rosette. The subsidiary medallions are more overtly cruciform.

All these medallions are simply overlaid on a field of irregularly colored, but evenly positioned rosette dots. The continuous overall pattern passes beneath the medallions and borders. They do not interact with or attach to the textile spot pattern. These dots are a pile rendition of the effect produced by tie-dyeing nodes of fabric: The Chinese pu-lo technique. Although this attractive effect easily lends itself to rugs, actual surviving antique pieces seem to be quite rare and we have not been able to locate another early example in literature.

All four main border sections are symmetric out from their respective centers. The side borders have a “M” as midpoint while the end stripes employ peonies instead. The corners of the main border are formed from floriated sprays, the end ones compressed, and the side ones stretched. The salmon “T” fret inner border has more problems at the corners: there are three distinct attempts at resolution and only one at the top right and bottom left is successful.

In general, 19168 looks older than 20978 (seen below) and has a wholly distinct verso.

To view rug 19168 on our website, click here.

#20978

Daybed or Small Kang Formal Rug

Ningxia, North Central China

4’ 10”x 6’9”

circa 1800

Structural Analysis:

Warp:cotton,white,natural,Z-4-S,tightly twisted;

Weft: cotton, grey-white, mostly Z-4-S,some Z-2,3-S,winder plied, very soft and thick; two shoots alternating, straight to slack; some wefts more compacted than others;

Pile:wool,Z-3 or 4;

Knot: PL/no warp depression/horiz.5 x vertical 5 = 25 knots per square inch
[check for Knots along edges]

Sides: 1 cord of two body warps, closely weft covered;

Ends: n.o;

Weft/knot ratio:50/50 to slight knot predominance.

Remarks:

Irregular verso, large knots.

Ningxia rugs are not usually dark blue. This charming small rug has a broad circular lotus (or peony?) wreath encircling a central pair of lion dogs, the smaller clinging to the back of the larger. The lion dog of 20978 is distinctly roll-poly and friendly, not fierce or even barking. The lotus wreath is itself a collage, featuring lotus palmettes, intermediate peony leaf sprays and tiny fretwork sections.

The medallion is bracketed at each end by five tree peonies graded in size and framed by fret corners, each with two dragon heads. The overall effect is not far from the slightly larger Moore-Mumford no.285 daybed example, also with a dark blue ground. Here there are five peonies at each end of the field and a simple, singe larger polychrome cloud wreath around two distinct lion dogs.

The border of no.285 is a classic peony or lotus “S” pattern, whereas in 20978 there are thick dark blue leaves and diagonal small flowers in the scrollwork.  The field peonies of the two rugs are similarly stylized and geometric. The leaves and stems of 20978 are, however, more naturalistic than the correspondents of no.285.  In particular, the two-tone leaves of the latter are stiffer and less convincing than those of 20978.

The Moore-Mumford dog was rather optimistically dated to the late Kang-Hsi period, perhaps on the basis of the brocade pattern inner border, but given what is now known of the c.1700 design revolution in Ningxia, a date not far from 1800, or at least in the last quarter of the l8th century is much more possible.

To view rug 20978 on our website, click here.

#18355 Chinese – NingXia: circa 1750

#18355
Chinese, Ning Xia, Platform Carpet
3.99m x 4.06m (13’1” x 13’4”)
2^nd half of the18^th 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 18^th 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 18^th century.

To view this piece on our website, please use the following link:
http://www.rahmanan.com/inventory/show/18355/

Antique Carpets of China: NingXia

The Western Chinese province of NingXia has a mostly Muslim population and is the source of many of the oldest Chinese carpets of the modern era (Ming Dynasty and later).

The designs are typically Chinese: fretwork or Greek key borders, paeony palmettes, bats, butterflies, Fu Dogs, clouds, dragons, shou symbols, etc.  Pillar carpets designed to wrap around monastery columns and displaying a dragon above waves are a specialty.

The weave is course and soft, with several wefts between knot rows, and a longish pile.  Yellow golds, dark and light blues are common colors.  The outermost plain border on pre-1800 examples is a corrosive brown.  Formats include large square “throne” carpets, parallel meditation runners, chair seats, and scalloped backs.

to view these rugs on our website, please use the following links:

http://www.rahmanan.com/inventory/show/17029/

http://www.rahmanan.com/inventory/show/18355/

http://www.rahmanan.com/inventory/show/19168/

http://www.rahmanan.com/inventory/show/19952/

http://www.rahmanan.com/inventory/show/40-503/

Research & writing by Peter Saunders, edited by Katrina Mauro.

Woven Arts of China: Antique Rugs

Archeological excavations have produced rugs from the Han Dynasty China, and carpets have been woven continually in China proper since the Ming Dynasty.  Antique carpets available today are principally from three sources.

NingXia, in Western China, wove softly textured, loosely woven pieces with corrosive plain brown outer borders in the early examples, often in large square sizes, with foo dog medallions, cloud wreaths, paeonies, and ornamental patterns of bats or butterflies.  Dragon pillar carpets were created especially for monasteries, as were runners in panel designs.

In the later 19th Century, workshops were established in Peking weaving the ever popular blue-and-white color scheme with Chinese motifs including precious objects, complex fretwork, or floral borders and elaborate medallions.

In the 1920s Tientsin on the Pacific Coast wove Art Deco style pieces with strong colors, minimal Chinese elements, and heavy textures.  Prices for antique rugs vary immensely.

Production today remains sizeable in China and any size and style may be ordered, including copies of very fine Persian silks.

To view these rugs on our website, please see the following links:

NingXia: http://www.rahmanan.com/inventory/show/18663/

Peking: http://www.rahmanan.com/inventory/show/17029/

Art Deco: http://www.rahmanan.com/inventory/show/18588/

*research and writing by Peter Saunders, edited by Katrina Mauro.