An Isfahan wool and metal thread rug, Central Persia

The apparently previously unpublished lot offered here presents an intriguing link between the small Isfahan palmette and vine rugs and the so-called ‘Polonaise’ group of silk and metal thread rugs, also produced in Isfahan during the 17^th century. 

Structurally, this lot is not related to the wool pile and metal thread brocaded Persian Court carpets of the 16^th and 17^th centuries, which are typically silk warped and wefted, see for example: Wearden, Jennifer, Oriental Carpets and their Structure,  V&A, London, 2003, pl.27, p. 44 and p.127 (Inv.No. T77-1919). However, small Isfahan rugs with both cotton warps are wefts are known, see Sotheby’s New York, 10 April 1997, lot 114; the ‘Polonaise’ group is woven with cotton warps and three weft shoots, the first and third in cotton, the second in silk, usually madder.

The design of this rug is most closely linked to that of the ‘Polonaise’ rugs, for example that in the collection of the Dukes of Buccleuch, Inv.No.9 illustrated in Beattie, May H., Carpets of Central Persia, World of Islam Festival Publishing Co.Ltd., 1976, Fig.5a, p.41.  The Buccleuch rug and the lot offered here share the same skeletal quatrefoil medallion formed of split rumi leaves, centred by a lobed flower head with simple radiating ‘stamens’ to the centre.  The field design of both pieces is composed of a subliminally endless repeat of interlacing cartouches formed by bi-planar arcaded vines edged with cloud scrolls and with cloud volutes at the intersections. The form of these cartouches is derived from the compartmentalised garden carpet design, seen for example in the carpet formerly in the collection of Albert Figdor, illustrated in Sarre, F. and Trenkwald, H., Old Oriental Carpets, Vienna & Leipzig, 1926-9 as pl.12, Vol.II, dated to the first half of the 16^th century.  For two other examples of ‘Polonaise’ rugs with related arcaded compartment and vinery fields, see Sarre, op.cit., pl.25, Vol.I and pl.44, Vol.II, from the collection of John D. Rockefeller Junior. The compartments created by the use of the overlaid arcading in the ‘Polonaise’ rugs are usually coloured separately, creating a ‘jigsaw’ effect in the field.  Conversely, the present lot has the plain crimson ground usually associated with Isfahan wool rugs.

This rug shares some other design characteristics with the small Isfahan rugs, for example the use of bright ivory vine scrolls, narrowly edged in dark brown, in two planes, providing a sparkling contrast to the crimson field; both the Sotheby’s lot cited above and the piece offered here benefit from their outstanding condition to clearly illustrate the intended effect. The partial cloudbands which radiate from the central medallion are also drawn in a way typical of Isfahan wool rugs, for example see Sotheby’s, op.cit. The use of an intense blue-green for the border, which strongly frames the field, is a classic device in the Isfahan palmette and vine rugs, unlike the borders of the ‘Polonaise’ group which are tonally closer to the field (and also often parti-coloured). However, like the ‘Polonaise’ group, elements of the design are highlighted with metal thread brocading; when first produced, the bright silver of the brocade would have providing a glittering foil to the crimson ground and visually linked the ivory vine scrolls.  The designer clearly intended this, as the slender vines within the medallion, which radiate from the central flower head, are contrastingly coloured crimson.

Therefore, in design, in structure and in materials the present lot is transitional between the classic canons of both the ‘Polonaise’ and the Isfahan wool rug workshops, raising intriguing questions about both the physical and artistic relationships between the two types of weaving.

There is some corrosion to the dark browns, but otherwise the wool pile of this piece is in exceptional condition. The original metal thread brocading is partially extant beneath the later couched metal thread; the areas which are brocaded are true to the original.  Rarely, the original side and end finishes are also extant.