A KHORASAN CARPET FRAGMENT, EAST PERSIA

A splendid fragment from what must once have been a very large carpet, judging from the monumental scale of the motifs and border. Another fragment of the same carpet, with matching inner guard stripe at the upper edge, but lacking the border, was sold Sotheby’s London, 9 October 1991, lot 2 (also illustrated Hali 59, October 1991, p.75, Auction Previews, and Hali 60, December 1991, APG p. 150.). A section of a similar border, probably also from the same carpet, was advertised by Bernheimer for Textura, Maastricht 1992 in Hali 61, February 1992, p. 62 as ‘Sceptre-head Design Carpet Border, Khorasan, North East Persia, 17th century’. A fragment from a related, earlier sceptre-head border, also Khorasan, is in the Burrell Collection, Glasgow, Inv. no. 9.23, illustrated Hali 172, Summer 2012, front cover, p. 7 and p. 46, in Steven Cohen’s article, ‘Beasts of the Imagination’, p. 46-49 (Safavid ‘blue-ground grotesque’ carpet border fragment, Khorasan, northeast Persia, late 16th or early 17th century. Wool pile on a silk foundation, 40.6 x 78.7cm). The bold lattice of large leaves reference the designs of earlier Central Persian strapwork carpets, Khorasan tree carpets, with echoes of the attenuated reserves seen in for example the Barbieri tree carpet, and the Khorasan lattice work carpets, such as those illustrated by Michael Franses in his article “Tying the Knot”, Hali 25th Anniversary Edition (with Hali 135), July-August 2004, pp. 92-99, in his discussion about the wider context of jufti knotting and the Khorasan attribution. Further discussion of Khorasan carpets, also by Michael Franses, is found in Orient Stars, London, 1993, pp.94-100 and in “Khorasan Shrub Carpets”, the article by Christina Klose in Hali 125, November-December 2002, pp. 77-85. Daniel Walker in ‘Carpets of Khorasan’, his review of the exhibition ‘Pieces of a Puzzle: Classical Persian Carpet Fragments’ at the Textile Museum, Washington in Hali 149, November-December 2006, pp. 72-77, usefully summarises many of the characteristics of the early ‘classical’ carpets of Khorasan, such as the use of jufti knotting, red outlining of the motifs and a ‘fondness for particular shades’, exemplified here in the beautiful colouring of the present lot. 

Please note that due to recent changes in the U.S. law, carpets and rugs of Iranian/Persian origin can no longer be imported into the U.S