Middle East, Carpet; Carpet, wool knotted pile on wool foundation, medallion design with central star on dark blue ground, possibly Heriz, NW Iran, 1850-1875

Carpet, hand knotted woollen pile on woollen warp and weft, Persian 19th century.
Design:
Field: dark blue ground with quarter corner section of the central medallion but on a larger scale. The central medallion is formed by an 8-pointed star in dark blue surrounded by a purple band. It contains red and yellow centre from which radiate blue, pruple and red blssoms. The star is surrounded by a wide cusped lozenge in white containing blue and purple buds and blossoms on light green stems. The lozenge terminates at the top and bottom in a small pendant-form. The dark blue ground of the field is covered with large blossoms, mainly red and yellow and smaller white flowers carried on thick purple stems. The design is more crowded in the upper part of the carpet.
Main Border: purple ground with double meander in thick red stems edged with blue on which yellow blossoms alternate with blue and red ones; yellow heads bracketed with dark blue serrated leaves.
Inner and Outer Borders: predominantly green ground changing to blue in parts of the upper half. Red meander with red diagonal leaves and purple blossoms.

Bought from Vincent J. Robinson & Co., 34 Wigmore Street, London, for £80. Recommending it for purchase, museum curator Caspar Purdon Clarke described the carpet briefly as "Kurdish, very good".

This is a good example of what happens when a classical medallion design, normally woven with an asymmetrical knot, is woven with a symmetrical knot: gone are the circles, spirals and curling stems and in their place is a beautiful and dramatic design of stylised blossoms and star-shaped medallions.

389-1880