Wool pile carpet, probably made in Beijing, China, ca. 1930

Wool pile carpet in beige and gold, with cotton. It has three central geometric motifs in green.

Purchased with funds provided by the Donor Friends of the V&A

A particular feature of these 20th-century carpets is the distinctive technique, known as 'closed-back' which makes them especially compact. This involves depressing one warp of each pair so that it is behind its partner rather than lying alongside of it.

This carpet was made in China during the period 1920 to 1940 when there was a brief flowering of inventive rug-making in the cities of Beijing and Tianjin. Owing to the loss of markets in Turkey, due to the First World War, carpet import and export enterprises in America and Europe turned to China to satisfy the needs of interior designers. This twenty-year span was a time of co-operation between western entrepreneurs and Chinese designers who together produced modernist patterns for chic interiors. Although many of the pieces were destined for the west, they were also used in the individually-designed houses of fashionable Chinese as well as in the skyscraper hotels that came to dominate the Shanghai waterfront at this time.

This piece is a key example of the genre. It displays the technical features characteristic of Chinese-produced carpets of the period as well as the distinctive palette of chrome green used undiluted. What makes it a particularly significant purchase, however, is the design. Although the V&A has identified a carpet in its collection by the British designer, Betty Joel (1896-1985), as having been woven in China in the 1930s, the piece under consideration successfully combines the Chinese traditional with the modern. This synthesis was advocated by Chinese design theorists keen to encourage contemporary practitioners to rediscover and utilize China's own artistic heritage in their work, rather than look to the west for cultural styles. For this reason, we believe that the striking trio of central motifs on this carpet, echoing archaic bronze and jade patterns, was designed by a Chinese designer with this adaptation of visual forms in mind. A notable text in this respect is Chen Zhifo's Tu'an ('Design') of 1929 along with his compilations of several volumes of examples of Chinese designs from historic sources. At the present time, we cannot identify the designer of this carpet with any certainty though we are hopeful that further research in as yet untapped Chinese sources of the period will provide more positive clues. Updated motifs from an ancient repertoire are hallmarks of the work of Pang Xunqin (1906-1985). The political events in China during the late 1920s and on through the 1930s and 40s prevented such artist designers from realising their work into tangible objects. This striking carpet represents one of the few designs that came to fruition in these conflicted times.

FE.2-2003