A NINGXIA CARPET, WEST CHINA

Property of a Lady, Christie's New York, 6 December 1988, lot 113

Sotheby's New York, 3 June 2005, lot 7

A Qing Chinese kang carpet of great elegance, decorated with bats (symbols for happiness) and upwardly ascending cloud trails, and with borders of diaper design, fret and coin motifs (for wealth), the design based on a 17th or 18th century Chinese brocade, in very good condition for its age.

Whilst carpets from Persia, India and the Ottoman Empire were extensively traded from at least the late 15^th century, in contrast the classical carpets of China were relatively unknown in the west until the early 20^th century, during the final years of the Qing dynasty (1636–1912), when they began to appear on the international market. The rug scholar, Arthur Urbane Dilley wrote “The advent of Chinese rugs in America was as dramatic as their quick capture of popular approbation”.¹ The first auction by the American Art Association occurred in 1908. They were enthusiastically taken up by collectors such as Dilley himself, Louis Tiffany, J K Mumford, Frederick Moore, T B Clarke and Scofield Thayer, but by 1920, these sales had effectively ceased, as the sources dried up. Carpets in China were clearly highly prized as prestigious possessions: virtually all the portraits of the Ming and Qing emperors include depictions of carpets, see Köln, 2005,²  pp. 19-23, pp. 33, 39 for examples. Carpets were used on raised platforms (dais), on beds, kang, as chair, bench, table and saddle covers, to define areas of importance, provide warmth and comfort, and through their motifs and decoration, create a harmonious aesthetic which integrated their symbolism with the other Chinese works of art in the tradition of using symbols and homophones to decorate works of art.

¹ Dilley, Arthur Urbane, Oriental Rugs and Carpets, A Comprehensive Study, Scribner’s, New York, 1931 cited in Franses, Michael,  A Brief Introduction to classical Chinese carpets, in Classical Chinese Carpets I, London, 2000

² Köln, 2005: König, Hans and Franses, Michael, Glanz de Himmelssöhne, Kaiserliche Teppiche aus China 1400 – 1750, Museum für Ostasiatische Kunst, Köln, exhibition catalogue, London, 2005