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18
Gansu
New
334 x 149 cm (10' 11" x 4' 11")
East Turkestan, early 19th century
Condition: good according to age, low pile in places, scattered small repairs
Warp: cotton, weft: cotton, pile: wool
This East Turkestan carpet bears a dotted pattern on a midnight-blue ground. This motif is called 'po-lu', which also appears on reserve-dyed textiles in other Tibetan regions. It can already be seen in the wall paintings of the monasteries of Alchi in Ladakh, dating to around 1200. The motif is found not only on East Turkestan pieces, but also in China. This is also indicated by the medallion in the center: it shows two circling dragons surrounded by bats. In the corners we find latticework of the kind familiar from Chinese carpets of the classical period.
Hans König has written extensively about the reciprocal crenellated border in Hali 174 (pp. 43 ff.), and also mentioned the special form in which it is not reciprocal. This occasionally appears in Khotan (Tabibnia, 'Intrecci Cinesi', Milan 2011), but also in Yarkand, as in the Doris Duke carpet (Christie's New York, June 3, 2008, lot 32). However, the majority of pieces with crenellations pointing only in one direction come from Gansu (König in Hali 138, pp. 52 ff.).
A pure cotton foundation with two wefts confirms the assumption that our carpet originates from the other, eastern end of the Taklamakan Desert. König also points out that the crenellations almost always point outward, in a protective manner, and in his article he illustrates only a small, unusual carpet in which they are directed inward. By chance, in our auction we have not just one but two carpets with outward-pointing crenellations.
Simple yellow, red, and blue guard stripes combine with the meander border to form, so to speak, the masonry on which the crenellations rest. In König's Gansu article, several carpets with 'po-lu' design are illustrated, and a fragment from the Marshall and Marilyn Wolff collection on page 56 seems to evoke a comparable impression to that of our extraordinary example.
Estimate: € 12000 - 18000
East Turkestan, early 19th century
Condition: good according to age, low pile in places, scattered small repairs
Warp: cotton, weft: cotton, pile: wool
This East Turkestan carpet bears a dotted pattern on a midnight-blue ground. This motif is called 'po-lu', which also appears on reserve-dyed textiles in other Tibetan regions. It can already be seen in the wall paintings of the monasteries of Alchi in Ladakh, dating to around 1200. The motif is found not only on East Turkestan pieces, but also in China. This is also indicated by the medallion in the center: it shows two circling dragons surrounded by bats. In the corners we find latticework of the kind familiar from Chinese carpets of the classical period.
Hans König has written extensively about the reciprocal crenellated border in Hali 174 (pp. 43 ff.), and also mentioned the special form in which it is not reciprocal. This occasionally appears in Khotan (Tabibnia, 'Intrecci Cinesi', Milan 2011), but also in Yarkand, as in the Doris Duke carpet (Christie's New York, June 3, 2008, lot 32). However, the majority of pieces with crenellations pointing only in one direction come from Gansu (König in Hali 138, pp. 52 ff.).
A pure cotton foundation with two wefts confirms the assumption that our carpet originates from the other, eastern end of the Taklamakan Desert. König also points out that the crenellations almost always point outward, in a protective manner, and in his article he illustrates only a small, unusual carpet in which they are directed inward. By chance, in our auction we have not just one but two carpets with outward-pointing crenellations.
Simple yellow, red, and blue guard stripes combine with the meander border to form, so to speak, the masonry on which the crenellations rest. In König's Gansu article, several carpets with 'po-lu' design are illustrated, and a fragment from the Marshall and Marilyn Wolff collection on page 56 seems to evoke a comparable impression to that of our extraordinary example.
Estimate: € 12000 - 18000