Carpet Fragment
1600-1650 (made)
| Artist/Maker | |
| Place of origin |
Warp: white cotton; Z2S; 30 threads per inch (130 per dm).
Weft: main weft: gold-coloured cotton and gold coloured silk; 3 shoots of weft (1 cotton, 1 silk, 1 cotton) after each row of knots; 12 knots per inch (50 per dm). Brocaded weft: 2 types metal thread; silver strip around golden silk and silver strip around white silk, the silk is z spun. Brocaded over an average of 4 threads.
Pile: Silk; 8 colours (faded): yellow, light orange, green, dark blue, blue, light blue, black, white; asymmetrical knot open to left, tied around 2 warp threads; 180 knots per sq. inch (3250 per sq. dm.)
Side finish: cut
End finish: cut
Design: Field: metallic brocading provides the ground. In the centre of the present gragment are a pair of white lilies meeting on the horizontal plane. They are veined in dark blue and were outlined in black. Yellow/light blue leaves form a square frame beyond which on the lower and upper sides is a large area of orange with a black, multi-curvilinear outline in black, and each supporting a blue palmette containing a blossom of metal brocading with yellow stems. To the left and right of the central square - and facing inwards - is a large, blossom-like form now grey but perhaps once light purple. Each extends as a pair of horns towards the centre and each has a scalloped pendant. These forms contain a white blossom with orange centre and yellow outer decoration, and are supported by pairs of green saz leaves on a stout yellow stem which meanders around much of the field to write the figures described above and form dark blue, five-petalled rosettes placed beyond each corner of the central square, other small blossoms of two-tone leaves all on blue stems. Above and below the blue palmettes white stems interact with the yellow to form a diamond shape which reinforces the geometry of the total design.
Outside this whole area stems and their leaves are dark blue and link a crowd of multi-coloured flowers and leaves. The upper centre has a large, horned blue blossom and wihin it a green palmette, itself containing a flower. Part of this design survives in the lower centre, and against the side borders are two halves of a large yellow motif inside which appears to be the half of a palmette outlined in dark blue.
Main border: the incomplete outer borders of the fragment may be the carpet's main border. The ground is green and a yellow meander links remains of white flowers.
Inner border: a vertical strip showing half only of reciprocal twinned trefoils in white, orange and light blue.
Weft: main weft: gold-coloured cotton and gold coloured silk; 3 shoots of weft (1 cotton, 1 silk, 1 cotton) after each row of knots; 12 knots per inch (50 per dm). Brocaded weft: 2 types metal thread; silver strip around golden silk and silver strip around white silk, the silk is z spun. Brocaded over an average of 4 threads.
Pile: Silk; 8 colours (faded): yellow, light orange, green, dark blue, blue, light blue, black, white; asymmetrical knot open to left, tied around 2 warp threads; 180 knots per sq. inch (3250 per sq. dm.)
Side finish: cut
End finish: cut
Design: Field: metallic brocading provides the ground. In the centre of the present gragment are a pair of white lilies meeting on the horizontal plane. They are veined in dark blue and were outlined in black. Yellow/light blue leaves form a square frame beyond which on the lower and upper sides is a large area of orange with a black, multi-curvilinear outline in black, and each supporting a blue palmette containing a blossom of metal brocading with yellow stems. To the left and right of the central square - and facing inwards - is a large, blossom-like form now grey but perhaps once light purple. Each extends as a pair of horns towards the centre and each has a scalloped pendant. These forms contain a white blossom with orange centre and yellow outer decoration, and are supported by pairs of green saz leaves on a stout yellow stem which meanders around much of the field to write the figures described above and form dark blue, five-petalled rosettes placed beyond each corner of the central square, other small blossoms of two-tone leaves all on blue stems. Above and below the blue palmettes white stems interact with the yellow to form a diamond shape which reinforces the geometry of the total design.
Outside this whole area stems and their leaves are dark blue and link a crowd of multi-coloured flowers and leaves. The upper centre has a large, horned blue blossom and wihin it a green palmette, itself containing a flower. Part of this design survives in the lower centre, and against the side borders are two halves of a large yellow motif inside which appears to be the half of a palmette outlined in dark blue.
Main border: the incomplete outer borders of the fragment may be the carpet's main border. The ground is green and a yellow meander links remains of white flowers.
Inner border: a vertical strip showing half only of reciprocal twinned trefoils in white, orange and light blue.
Object details
| Category | |
| Object type | |
| Materials and techniques | weaving, cotton, silk |
| Brief description | Middle East, Carpet, Fragment. Carpet fragment cut into a circle, silk knotted pile on cotton warp and cotton and silk weft, silver brocading, 'Polonaise' design of half-palmettes, saz leaves and flowers against light ground, probably Isfahan or Kashan, Iran, 1600-1650 |
| Physical description | Warp: white cotton; Z2S; 30 threads per inch (130 per dm). Weft: main weft: gold-coloured cotton and gold coloured silk; 3 shoots of weft (1 cotton, 1 silk, 1 cotton) after each row of knots; 12 knots per inch (50 per dm). Brocaded weft: 2 types metal thread; silver strip around golden silk and silver strip around white silk, the silk is z spun. Brocaded over an average of 4 threads. Pile: Silk; 8 colours (faded): yellow, light orange, green, dark blue, blue, light blue, black, white; asymmetrical knot open to left, tied around 2 warp threads; 180 knots per sq. inch (3250 per sq. dm.) Side finish: cut End finish: cut Design: Field: metallic brocading provides the ground. In the centre of the present gragment are a pair of white lilies meeting on the horizontal plane. They are veined in dark blue and were outlined in black. Yellow/light blue leaves form a square frame beyond which on the lower and upper sides is a large area of orange with a black, multi-curvilinear outline in black, and each supporting a blue palmette containing a blossom of metal brocading with yellow stems. To the left and right of the central square - and facing inwards - is a large, blossom-like form now grey but perhaps once light purple. Each extends as a pair of horns towards the centre and each has a scalloped pendant. These forms contain a white blossom with orange centre and yellow outer decoration, and are supported by pairs of green saz leaves on a stout yellow stem which meanders around much of the field to write the figures described above and form dark blue, five-petalled rosettes placed beyond each corner of the central square, other small blossoms of two-tone leaves all on blue stems. Above and below the blue palmettes white stems interact with the yellow to form a diamond shape which reinforces the geometry of the total design. Outside this whole area stems and their leaves are dark blue and link a crowd of multi-coloured flowers and leaves. The upper centre has a large, horned blue blossom and wihin it a green palmette, itself containing a flower. Part of this design survives in the lower centre, and against the side borders are two halves of a large yellow motif inside which appears to be the half of a palmette outlined in dark blue. Main border: the incomplete outer borders of the fragment may be the carpet's main border. The ground is green and a yellow meander links remains of white flowers. Inner border: a vertical strip showing half only of reciprocal twinned trefoils in white, orange and light blue. |
| Dimensions |
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| Style | |
| Object history | Purchased from J. Sasson & Co., 7 Great Castle Street, London. |
| Production | This piece has been cut into a circle and trimmed with a 'modern' metal fringe; the fringe has been removed and discarded as it was a late 19th c. European addition. |
| Bibliographic reference | F. Spuhler, Islamic Carpets in the Keir Collection (London: Faber & Faber 1978): 108 and cat. no. 55. |
| Collection | |
| Accession number | 330-1889 |
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| Record created | August 25, 2005 |
| Record URL |
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