Kerman Rugs: Kerman Vase Carpet Lot 125

Rippon Boswell Wiesbaden

Catalogue: Major Autumn Auction
Auction date: Saturday 05. December 2009 at 03 PM

Lot: 125
Kerman Fragment This fragment, with beautifully drawn palmettes and sickle leaves, stems from the Jekyll carpet, named after its previous owner. Another, somewhat larger fragment of the Jekyll carpet is published in ""Orient Stars"". A very much larger fragment of the Jekyll carpet in the Wher Collection shows what the borders of this magnificent carpet looked like. – Large sections of old repiling, now faded in colour. Mounted onto black velvet.
Origin:
South Persia, Kirman region
Size:
72 x 79 cm
Age:
16th / 17th century
Estimate:
1200 €
Literature:
KIRCHHEIM, E. HEINRICH, Orient Stars. A Carpet Collection. Stuttgart & London 1993, no. 72 *** INSTITUT DU MONDE ARABE (publ.), Tapis present de L'Orient A L'Occident. (Exhibition catalogue) Paris 1989, pl. p. 149

Seen on www.rippon-boswell-wiesbaden.de

JBOC Notes: I take a little different read on these rugs than virtually everyone else. This fragment is a type of rug that we call a "Vase Carpet". This is based on the writing of Dr. Mae Beattie. Beattie delineated the group on the basis of structure and then suggested Kerman as a possible origin on the basis of a structural similarity to 19th century Kerman rugs. Following that lead virtually everyone attributes these rugs to Kerman.

This is a problem for me for a few reasons. The earliest Vase carpets are the Sanguszko group. There is no evidence of any artistic tradition in Kerman that could account for the Persian court style in the Sanguszko carpets. However if we consider Khorasan in the late 16th century the art of the Sanguszko group fits perfectly. So if the art fits Khorasan how do we deal with the structural similarities to latter Kerman? Well first of all the structures are not the same. A Kerman rug had a rigid shot, a sinuous shot, and then a rigid shot of weft between each row of knots. Vase carpets have two strands of heavy rigid then a thin usually silk sinuous shot and then two more rigid strands. I have seen village rugs from the Qainat region of Khorasan with a two rigid, one sinuous, two rigid structure that is far closer to a Vase carpet than anything from Kerman.

I attribute this fragment to Khorasan seventeenth century.