Lot Essay
There is a major development of carpet design in 'Polonaise' carpets. Until this point Persian carpets would have one colour for the ground of the field, maybe another for the medallion, and maybe another, or, rarely, a reciprocal design of two colours, for the border. The earliest Kashan silk and metal thread carpets follow the same concept, usually with monochrome metal-thread fields (Arthur Upham Pope, A Survey of Persian Art, Oxford, 1938, pls.1242 and 1243 for example). Very shortly after this the designers began using the irregularly shaped panels formed by the scrolling arabesques to create different fields, each of which would have a different ground colour, a technique already long established in manuscript illumination. The field design of this carpet demonstrates this feature very well. The bisected cartouche panels around the edges are filled with a mushroom-brown silk while the remaining field is a complex arrangement of silver and gold interlocking segments that are overlaid with a fine lattice of leafy vine and delicate arabesques. These differently coloured metal brocaded segments were probably more marked when the rug was first made but is more clearly visible in the hand coloured illustration in Riegl, 1982, pl. XXIII; Nr. 32 (Beschreibung in vol. I, Tafel in vol. II).
The reciprocal trefoil pattern border seen here is relatively common amongst the group however the striking appearance of the contrasting red silk, which remains in remarkably high pile is most unusual. In many instances, the red dye used at the time has proved fugitive and in many cases has faded to a pale tan colour. A carpet with a very similar field design and the same coloured reciprocal border can be seen in the Museo Nazionale del Palazzo de Venezia, Rome, gifted by a Mrs Henrietta Tower Wurts in 1933, (I. Sabatini, ‘Polonaise Carpets in Baroque Rome’, Oriental Carpet & Textile Studies, VII, ICOC, 2011, pp.100, fig.1). Other examples that display the same border are in; the Museum für Angewandte Kunst in Vienna (F. Sarre and H. Trenkwald, Altorientalische Teppiche, Österreichisches Museum für Angewandte Kunst, Vienna/Leipzig, 1926/28, vol.1, pl.71, pp.204-5; the Museum of Islamic Art, Berlin (F. Sphuler, Oriental Carpets in the Museum of Islamic Art, Berlin, London and Boston, 1988, no.85, p.84, ill.p.226) and in the Rosenborg Castle, Copenhagen, (F.R.Martin, A History of Oriental Carpets before 1800, Stockholm, 1908, pl.12).
The reciprocal trefoil pattern border seen here is relatively common amongst the group however the striking appearance of the contrasting red silk, which remains in remarkably high pile is most unusual. In many instances, the red dye used at the time has proved fugitive and in many cases has faded to a pale tan colour. A carpet with a very similar field design and the same coloured reciprocal border can be seen in the Museo Nazionale del Palazzo de Venezia, Rome, gifted by a Mrs Henrietta Tower Wurts in 1933, (I. Sabatini, ‘Polonaise Carpets in Baroque Rome’, Oriental Carpet & Textile Studies, VII, ICOC, 2011, pp.100, fig.1). Other examples that display the same border are in; the Museum für Angewandte Kunst in Vienna (F. Sarre and H. Trenkwald, Altorientalische Teppiche, Österreichisches Museum für Angewandte Kunst, Vienna/Leipzig, 1926/28, vol.1, pl.71, pp.204-5; the Museum of Islamic Art, Berlin (F. Sphuler, Oriental Carpets in the Museum of Islamic Art, Berlin, London and Boston, 1988, no.85, p.84, ill.p.226) and in the Rosenborg Castle, Copenhagen, (F.R.Martin, A History of Oriental Carpets before 1800, Stockholm, 1908, pl.12).