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Antique Chinese Ningxia Rug
About the Item
#20853
Main Hall Carpet
11’9” x 12’
Mid 18th Century
Structural Analysis:
Warp:cotton,off-white,natural,Z-4-S,somewhat irregular;
Weft:cotton,off-white,Z-4-S,winder plied, quite irregular;2 shots alternating;
wefts thick and soft;
Pile:wool,Z-4;
Knot: PL/0 degrees warp depression/horiz. 6 x vertical 5 = 30 knots per square
inch; knots somewhat irregular, some quite thin;
[check for T knots along edges]
Sides: two cords each of two body warps, inner directly weft-attached; figure
eight sparsely weft yarn wrapped;
Weft/knot ratio: 60/40 wefts predominant.
Remarks:
This is another variant on the popular Mandarin nine lion dog carpet. The
polychrome cloud wreath has exuberant, almost Baroque volutes at the four
cardinal points. The intermediary wreath sections were in field tones and have
faded, making the composition rather hard to discern: the wreath would have
been more salient before the changes to the long, curved, intermediate sections.
The dominant ,dark blue lion dog appears at the top of the medallion and has a
wide, particularly expressive face, complete with character creases and a canine snout. The dog has real personality and individuality, unlike most of the animals
in similar carpets. The main dog is alert and lively, with curved and slightly droopy ears. All the dogs have light colored forepaws and small over pelts. The
creatures are well spaced and not crowded in the medallion.
The protected(protégé)dog is particularly small. The main dog seems to have no parallels among published carpets and were any to appear, an attribution to the same workshop should be considered.
The corners of the field employ double peony arabesques forming simplified
“heart” points at the right angles. The development here is much more schematic than l8830 and need not indicate the same workshop of origin. Sprays of tree peonies, butterflies, leafy twigs, fractional tendrils and grassy clusters are spotted throughout the now buff field.
The dark blue peony main border is notable for the rare diagonal corner
palmettes from which emanate foliate sprays in both directions in order to make
a perfectly symmetric turn. A bold T-fret inner border in salmon and dark blue
has neat T’s in three corners and a single hook in one. This is a certain indicator, if one is still needed, that no scale paper cartoons were available to the weavers.
Specifically, there was no formal illustration of how to make a fret border turn a
corner. As with our other examples, this nine dog main hall carpet was probably woven to the order of a successful Mandarin administrator. Each of our large lion dog carpets seem to originate in a different shop, although 20853 and l8355 may be
more clearly related than the others. The extreme technical uniformity across the entire local industry deprives us of any unique idiosyncrasies and hence pattern is the sole evidence for differentiation.0ne must also keep in mind that the same shop evolved over time, producing different carpets for different clients, changing the design pool when useful and implying a rotating work staff.
Figure l. [macro image of verso]
- Dimensions:Width: 141 in (358.14 cm)Length: 144 in (365.76 cm)
- Materials and Techniques:Wool,Hand-Knotted
- Place of Origin:
- Period:1750-1759
- Date of Manufacture:1750
- Condition:Repaired. Minor fading.
- Seller Location:New York, NY
- Reference Number:
About the Seller
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- ShippingRetrieving quote...Ships From: New York, NY
- Return PolicyA return for this item may be initiated within 3 days of delivery.
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