Antique Rug Studio

Kansu province lies just to the east of Xinkiang or Chinese Turkestan. Kansu carpets are more "Chinese-like” with, as here, fret borders and corners, butt...

19th Century N. Chinese Mongolian Carpet Mongolian carpets do not fit into the usual Chinese typology. Very often square, with limited palettes and o...

This carpet is a pair with 20952, both in the classically correct blue and white style. Frets are everywhere: the fret wave border, the thick deep blue fretwork corners, the bold “Sh...

Ningxia loves peonies, lion dogs and yellow grounds. This rug has all three: rows of colorful peonies and their leafy stems; found lion dogs circling to make an openwork medallion, a...

Ningxia in Northern China provided Tibetan monasteries with large numbers of pillar carpets with wraparound dragons soaring above mountains and waves, us...

Early 19th Century Chinese Ningxia Kang Carpet ( 6'5" 11'4" - 195 x 345 ) The k’ang is a heated seating platform in northern Chinese houses and it is often covered by a rug for extra comfort. Kang rugs are long and relatively narrow as on this circa 1825 rug from Ningxia or Suiyuan in northern China. The classic “Grains of rice” pattern...

Late 18th Century Chinese Ningxia Kang Carpet Five dragons writhe and soar on a light yellow ground on this classically rendered long carpet from northern China, circa 1800. Flaming ...

The creamy ivory ground of this northern Chinese carpet is decorated with an all-over design of bats, “shou” symbols and knots, within a cartouche border of textile patterns and an i...

Square carpets are a Ningxia specialty. The subtle tone-on-tone rosette field pattern sets off a micro-landscape cloud wreath medallion, fret corners incorporating swastikas and vari...

1870s Persian Garrus Bijar Carpet ( 8'10" x 23'8" - 270 x 720 cm ) Bijar Gallery carpet Probably Garrus, Kurdistan, NW Persia 8’10” x 23’8” circa 1870 Wo...

This light yellow-ground Ningxia scatter is a transitional piece between the plain corrosive outer border rugs of the 17th-early 18th centuries and the later all dark blue outer border carpets...

Late 18th Century Chinese Ningxia Kang Carpet ( 6' x 10'3" - 175 x 415 ) Ningxia or Suiyuan, North Central China K’ang Carpet Structural Analysis Warp: cotton, off-white, natural, handspun, Z-4-S; Weft: cotton, off white, natural, winder plied, Z-3-S. handspun, two shoots alternating; Pile: wool, Z-3 or Z-4; Knot: PL,no alternate warp depression, 5 ½ per horizontal inch x 5 per vertical inch = 27 ½ per square inch; Sides: recovered; Ends: n.o. Weft/knots: 50/50, even. Peach border, medallion and corners corroded; sapphire blue highest. Remarks. The golden yellow field employs the classic “grains of rice” pattern with brown pips, centered by a broadly drawn peach scalloped peony medallion and en-suite corners. The matching peach tone border has inward facing peonies in one, two or three colors with short arabesque segments between. There is no corner resolution with diagonal palmettes. The inner medium dark blue border is pearled and the outermost stripe is plain as is characteristic of rugs of the period. The peony corners are bold and direct, without a plethora of intrusive minor elements. The central peony wreath is pared down as well to the most important motives. The contrast in scale between the rice grains, a size independent pattern and the vastly larger scale medallion and corners is particularly striking. The rice pattern...

Not every Peking carpet is blue,. For here is a taupe antique with an all-over repeat of peonies, butterflies and leaves, in horizontal rows, clearly adapted from a silk brocade text...