Lot n° 136
Estimation :
200000 - 300000
EUR
Result with fees
Result
: 257 600EUR
Exceptional and rare Polish carpet
Early... - Lot 136 - Coutau-Bégarie
Exceptional and rare Polish carpet
Early 17th century in silk and metal
Safavid period (Kachan or Isfahan), probably Kachan (central Persia)
The first so-called Polish carpets ordered by Shah Abbas (the Persian Louis XIV) at the beginning of the 17th century, the less ancient ones were knotted and woven in Isfahan
Dimensions 197 x 138 cm
Beautiful silk work, metal brocaded on silk foundations
Oxidations and natural wears Posterior restorations
Remises de soie dans les bulbes floraux notamment les bleus ciel. The color of these silks is bright and different from the celadon plant silks of the border. Perfectly visible to the expert.
Remarkable fineness
Density. About 10000 knots per dm2
Beautiful graphics
A beautiful decoration very clear of scrolls of floral bulbs surrounded by foliage blue sky, navy and ivory framing a cruciform medallion in the form of Armenian cross
Large celadon border with flower buds in the form of drops of water
Among the most important and beautiful of all Persian rugs are the so-called "Polish" rugs. This misleading term refers to Persian silk carpets woven with gold and silver threads in the royal workshops of the central city of Isfahan in Persia during the first half of the 17th century. It became associated with them following the 1878 Paris World's Fair, at the Trocadero Palace, when Duke Wladislaw Czartoryski exhibited in the Polish pavilion part of his collection of Persian carpets knotted in silk and embroidered with gold and silver threads.
Some of these carpets were decorated with his family's coat of arms and were mistakenly considered to be Persian-style Polish carpets (the main one is now in the Metropolitan Museum in New York (a gift from John D. Rockefeller Jr.)).
First produced in the early reign of Shah Abbas I the Great (1587 - 1629), these sumptuous weavings were the luxury items par excellence of Safavid Persia and have always been admired in the West. The first examples were probably produced in Kachan. Later, after Shah Abbas the Great established his new capital in Isfahan in 1598, they were woven in royal factories near the city's main square (most likely in Armenian workshops in New Julfa, the Armenian quarter of Isfahan established in the early 17th century by Shah Abbas). The approximately 250-300 Polish carpets that remain today are the remnants of an extensive production that spanned at least a century.
Many of them arrived in the West as diplomatic gifts from the ambassadors of Persian rulers to the Church or to royal courts. For example, according to the former curator of the Metropolitan Museum in New York, William Reinhold Valentiner (Metropolitan Museum Bulletin, New York, 1910), Louis XIV owned as many as 25 of these silk and precious metal carpets, and his chief minister of state, Cardinal Mazarin, at least one. In addition, "many carpets were given as diplomatic gifts by the royal court, including one example given in 1603 to Marino Grimani, then doge of Venice, ... other examples have survived into our century in the collections of the kings of Denmark, the Habsburgs in Austria, the Czartoryskis in Poland, the grand dukes of Liechtenstein, and the royal house of Savoy in Italy" (Louise Broadhurst, Christie's). It should be noted that these carpets were not only intended for export, as European travelers of the time observed that the Safavid nobility used them to furnish their palaces. They were also considered votive offerings: Shah Abbas donated two such carpets to the shrine of Imam Ali in Najaf (now in Iraq).
At the beginning of the 20th century, many of these carpets were acquired by wealthy individuals (notably Rothschild, Rockefeller) whose style corresponded to the decoration of their homes.
A carbon 14 analysis has been carried out, confirming the period and design of this rare carpet. Indeed, we will be facing a real museum piece, like the one presented in the Louvre Museum, with its baroque style designs adapted to Western taste and its relatively well preserved colors: blue, black, green, and old gold.
Note "All have pastel colors, some also having dark blue details. The pinks often fade, as they were probably dyed with safflower, which is very fugitive." (HALI Winter 2021).
Some Polish rugs have been sold at auction: -. April 16, 2007, Christie's London, the
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