Carpet
1650-1700 (made)
| Artist/Maker | |
| Place of origin |
Knotted pile carpet
Design: Field: Dark pink ground; the mirrored pairs of large decorated blossoms and smaller flowers lie on pairs of stems that meet vertically and then open into an elongated hexagon before reassembling. The paired stems are in white, dark blue and dark green (blue at bottom). Formal flowering plants fill the space, and upper centre is the vase, blue, outlined in white and sitting on the dark blue stems.
Main border: A curving and arching double meander in light blue (but v. light green along lower border and lower sides) intertwines with a pink stem, both bearing the same horned purple and yellow blossom on a dark blue ground.
Inner border: white ground, double meander - a green stem with yellow 5 petalled yellow/orange flowers and a dark blue stem outlined in red bearing blue buds.
Outer border: light blue ground, a red meander bearing yellow 5-petalled flowers and red leaves.
Design: Field: Dark pink ground; the mirrored pairs of large decorated blossoms and smaller flowers lie on pairs of stems that meet vertically and then open into an elongated hexagon before reassembling. The paired stems are in white, dark blue and dark green (blue at bottom). Formal flowering plants fill the space, and upper centre is the vase, blue, outlined in white and sitting on the dark blue stems.
Main border: A curving and arching double meander in light blue (but v. light green along lower border and lower sides) intertwines with a pink stem, both bearing the same horned purple and yellow blossom on a dark blue ground.
Inner border: white ground, double meander - a green stem with yellow 5 petalled yellow/orange flowers and a dark blue stem outlined in red bearing blue buds.
Outer border: light blue ground, a red meander bearing yellow 5-petalled flowers and red leaves.
Object details
| Category | |
| Object type | |
| Materials and techniques | Technical Analysis:
Warp: white cotton, Z4S, depressed. 32 per inch.
Weft: white sinuous silk and white cotton (presumed - colour not visible) pulled straight.
Silk: 2-spun, , 3 shoots per row of knots: silk, cotton, silk
15 rows of knots per inch
Pile: wool, 18 colours: red, orange, dark yellow, yellow, dark green, green, very light green, dark blue, blue, light blue, very light blue, dark purple, purple, dark pink, pink, light pink, dark brown, white. Asymmetrical, open to the left, tied round 2 warp threads.
Side finish: not original
End finish: missing
(analysed through glass 19.5.99 MV & FA) |
| Brief description | Carpet, wool knotted pile on cotton warp and silk and cotton weft, 'Vase Carpet' lattice design on red ground with later border, Kerman, Iran, 1650-1700 |
| Physical description | Knotted pile carpet Design: Field: Dark pink ground; the mirrored pairs of large decorated blossoms and smaller flowers lie on pairs of stems that meet vertically and then open into an elongated hexagon before reassembling. The paired stems are in white, dark blue and dark green (blue at bottom). Formal flowering plants fill the space, and upper centre is the vase, blue, outlined in white and sitting on the dark blue stems. Main border: A curving and arching double meander in light blue (but v. light green along lower border and lower sides) intertwines with a pink stem, both bearing the same horned purple and yellow blossom on a dark blue ground. Inner border: white ground, double meander - a green stem with yellow 5 petalled yellow/orange flowers and a dark blue stem outlined in red bearing blue buds. Outer border: light blue ground, a red meander bearing yellow 5-petalled flowers and red leaves. |
| Dimensions |
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| Style | |
| Gallery label | Old label:
This 17th century Persian vase carpet contains all the elements of the larger one displayed on the wall to the right, but in a more stylised form. The large, imaginary blossoms have been placed on the lines of three superimposed lattices, a white one, a dark one and a light blue one; stiff sprays of flowers have been placed in the spaces between the lines. A vase, after which this type of carpet is named, is in the centre. |
| Object history | Purchased in Istanbul in 1897 from Mrs Alice Whitaker, daughter and heir of William Henry Wrench (1836-96). Wrench was British consul in the city when he died, and he had formed a significant collection of Ottoman and Iranian objects while in the consular service. Caspar Purdon Clarke, then Director of the Art Museum at South Kensington, travelled to Istanbul to negotiate the purchase of part of Wrench's collection. He singled out this carpet in his report, "the Ispahan carpet [...] was well known to amateurs, and Mr Wrench had refused £300 for it, indeed all offers to purchase". He also noted that Wrench had purchased the carpet ten years previously for £85. In the printed catalogue of the Wrench sale, the carpet was described as an "Ispahan portière" (door curtain), and the carpet can be seen hanging on an interior wall (presumably covering a doorway) of Wrench's home in Istanbul in a photograph captioned "Constantinople. The Wrench Collection at Pera. Room showing Persian art objects" (V&A: PH.331 to 334-1892). A second carpet (V&A 358-1897) may be seen lying on the floor in the same photograph. |
| Bibliographic references |
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| Collection | |
| Accession number | 364-1897 |
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| Record created | June 15, 2004 |
| Record URL |
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