the main field depicting rows of objects of veneration, within a wan motif border decorated with shou roundels, narrow banded yellow, blue and brown inner and outer guards
In his seminal article on early Chinese carpets from 1982, (‘Early Ningxia Carpets in the Victoria and Albert Museum’,
Hali, vol. 5, no. 2, 1982, pp. 132-140), Michael Franses noted he had located just thirteen carpets with the ‘Hundred Antiques’ pattern in total, ten of which, as here, are woven vertically. The composition of these carpets shows a new design type, omitting a central medallion and corner spandrels (see Lot 3644) and clearly directional; the carpet is designed for contemplation, and was probably placed in front of a
kang or a day bed. The motifs used include those associated with Daoist, Buddhist and Confucian beliefs; selections from the Eight Precious Objects and scholars’ objects. Amongst the objects depicted here can be seen abacuses, fruit bowls, bells with stands, brushpots, fans, vases of flowers, baskets, ewers, musical pipes (
sheng), archaic bronzes, tea pots and covered teacups, game boards, scrolls and bonsais (
penjing), together with a flaming pearl and a musical chime (
qing). The depictions of the ‘Hundred Antiques’ pattern are consistent with the Chinese eighteenth century repertoire. It is a highly aesthetic carpet design intended for a Chinese home and not for export: the contemporary porcelain decorated with these motifs, together with the restrained furniture and carpets would have harmonised perfectly when placed together.
Michael Franses, ‘Early Ningxia Carpets in the Victoria and Albert Museum’, Hali, vol. 5, no. 2, 1982, fig. 16, illustrates a comparable ‘Hundred Antiques’ pattern carpet (287 by 170 cm), from The St. Louis Art Museum, gift of James F. Ballard (inv. no. 126-1929).
See the ‘Kelekian meditation carpet’ for another closely related example, illustrated Spuhler, Friedrich, The Thyssen-Bornemisza Collection: Carpets and Textiles, London, 1988, pp. 206-235, no. 62, pp. 226-229, and Hans König and Michael Franses, Exhibition catalogue, Glanz der Himmelssöhne: Kaiserliche Teppiche aus China 1400-1750 [Splendours of Sons of Heaven: Classical Chinese Carpets 1400-1750], Museum für Ostasiatische Kunst, Cologne, 2005-2006, London, 2005, cat. no. 65, pp. 173-175, 207; (also woven vertically). For a rug with the field covered with symbolic objects and selection of a hundred antiques, with alternating orientation in each half of the rug (214 by 124 cm), Qianlong period (1735-1799), Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, (probably late eighteenth century), see Gordon Leitch, Chinese Rugs, New York, 1935, pl. 14, pp. 55-56.
For comprehensive discussion and technical analysis of Chinese carpets, and comparable eighteenth century meditation carpets see Hans König and Michael Franses, op.cit.
