A Safavid part-cotton and part-metal-thread fragmentary rug, Kashan or Isphahan

inscribed:
"Once again the flower has raised her head and flared the petals of her robe for her admirers"
"Cypress mine, come quickly at the kiss of dawn"
"The bud has bloomed and the nightingale has sung in the garden"
"The clouds at the gates of Eden, in this garden, half..."

French & Co., New York
Jean Mikaeloff
Yves Mikaeloff
The Textile Gallery, London

Loan Exhibition of Early Oriental Carpets, Arts Club of Chicago, Chicago, January, 1926

Arthur Upham Pope, Catalogue of a Loan Exhibition of Early Oriental Carpets, Arts Club of Chicago, Chicago, ex. cat., 1926, no. 11

Pieced together of approximately 5 border fragments, 3 spandrels and a partial medallion (animals) and several calligraphic guard borders, as shown in 1926 illustration. Pile evenly low to knotheads. Small scattered surface abrasions and losses. Outline of spandrel with animals is formed by later silk brocading; abrasions and some tinting along several seams with blue dyes running in small spots; added rose colored silk stitched outline to one green spandrel, other two green spandrels with less visible stitching. Small holes and repaired holes in metal brocade areas, generally with silk and some of the silk with stitched and tinted outlines. Sewn to fabric backing and mounted, ready for hanging. Please note that a license may be required to export textiles, rugs and carpets of Iranian origin from the United States. Clients should enquire with the U.S. Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) regarding export requirements. Please check with the Carpet department if you are uncertain as to whether a lot is subject to this restriction or if you need assistance with such enquiries.
In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective qualified opinion.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING CONDITION OF A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD "AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF SALE PRINTED IN THE CATALOGUE.

This lot is part of the so-called ‘Salting’ group of Safavid rugs. Named for a carpet bequeathed to the Victoria and Albert Museum by George Salting upon his death in 1909, the attribution and dating of this group of rugs fell into question in the mid-twentieth century with some scholars suggesting they were copies of Safavid works manufactured in late nineteenth-century Turkey. Revered by early scholars such as Pope, Martin, Sarre, Kühnel, von Bode and Migeon, they were considered superb examples of Safavid weaving. When these rugs appeared on the market they were purchased by renowned collectors such as Charles Yerkes, Dikran Kelekian, Albert Goupil and Stefano Bardini; with several of them now in institutions such as the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, the Carpet Museum in Tehran, and the Walters Art Gallery, Baltimore.

‘Salting’ rugs can be divided into two sub-groups; one with central medallions, which are enhanced by floral and animal motifs and verses of calligraphy; and another with a niche format dominated by a mihrab and woven with floral designs and verses from the Koran. Two excellent examples of a prayer rug from the second group are ‘The New York Niche Rug,’ sold Sotheby’s New York, January 31, 2014, lot 93, and the Safavid silk and metal-thread niche rug sold Sotheby’s London, November 3, 2009, lot 276. Because of its design and structure of with asymmetrical knots tied on a silk foundation, the fragmentary rug offered here belongs to a group of twenty-seven ‘Salting’ medallion rugs, see Dr. John  Mills, “The Salting Group: a History and Clarification,” Oriental Carpet and Textile Studies, volume V-2, 1999, pp. 1-17. These rugs are characterized by a particularly fine weave and the use of metal-thread embellishment. Comparable weavings are the von Pannwitz rug in the Thyssen Bornemisza Collection, the Baker carpet in the Metropolitan Museum, the Goupil carpet in the Musée des Arts Décoratifs, Paris and another example in the Victoria and Albert Museum. The design of this fragmentary rug is similar to these related examples is many ways: the presence of smaller medallions inside larger polylobed ones, the elongated shapes of birds and the treatment of their feathers which are worked in wool on a metal-thread ground, the depiction of the tigers’ hide, and the undulating drawing of branches, among others. What differentiates the present lot from these famed examples is the inclusion of white cotton in the pile. Another known carpet of this type with cotton highlights is the so-called Darius of the Universe carpet in the Poldi Pezzoli Museum in Milan. However, cotton in the present piece is used much more abundantly than in the Milan carpet. Although incomplete, the calligraphy of this lot clearly tells the onlooker about love and the passions of the flesh. The inclusion of the calligraphy in the inner guard borders is rather unusual but existing examples are known, such as the aforementioned Poldi Pezzoli carpet, the Czartoryski rug in Krakow, and the Rothschild-Khalili carpet. Despite being fragmentary, this lot is undoubtedly an outstanding example of a medallion group ‘Salting’ rug. Understandably, Arthur Upham Pope praised this rug in his 1926 Catalogue of the Loan Exhibition of Early Oriental Carpets the following way: “Such firmness of texture, such exquisite delineation, such variety, such freedom of spacing … these are so rare as to furnish a test by which other designs and weavings are to be judged.”