Description:


Tabriz, capital of the north western Iranian province of Azerbaijan, has for centuries enjoyed a great reputation as a centre of Oriental culture. The vicissitudes of its history, its development from a naturally favoured oasis at the foot of the volcano Sahand, to today's commercial centre, and descriptions of its artists and craftsmen could fill many volumes. Here the author can only glance at those historical milestones which provide a rough outline of its cultural contribution to the Oriental carpet. The tradition that Tabriz was founded in the 8th century by the wife of Harun al Raschid, will not bear historical scrutiny. The origins of the town stretch far back into antiquity. Genghiz Khan (c.1162-1227), Timur (1336-1405) and Shah Ishmail I (1501-1524), the founder of the Safavid dynasty, all conqured this fulcrum between east and west and made it into one of the great cities of their empires. But it was in Shah Abbas the Great (1586-1628) that Tabriz found its most cultured patron. Wars and severe natural catastrophes such as devastation by earthquake, have never overwhelmed the town and its people over the centuries. In the Middle Ages, Tabriz saw a blossoming of the fine arts which influenced the development of carpet design. Manuscript illuminators, silk embroiderers, miniature painters and metal workers all inspired the carpet weavers. The early 18th century saw the end of the Safavid Empire and the decline of the town. Craftmanship fell into decay. When Heinrich Jacobi of Berlin set up his Persian carpet manufacturing company (Petag) in Tabriz in 1911, only an insignificant number of the traditional wool colours and carpet patterns led to a renaissance of weaving in the town.



This excellent example has its stylistic roots in the Safavid period and looks very much like a textile of the time. It is in fact a carpet with four cornerpieces and a hunting scence on the main field. It is executed to a remarkably fine quality. The fields about its four main axes have finely drawn figures on animals hunting on their prey. The extremely artistic central medallion shows the rays of the sun, encircled by hunting animals catching their prey and encircled around these animals are beautiful pairs of green coloured parrots. The four corners have the spirit of hunting design from the Safavid period, they are decorated beautifully with 2 pairs of phoenixes(symbol of good luck), followed by a pair of lions hunting their prey down. An excellent medallion mixing pastel dark blue and soft brown and cream with the inevitable dark indigo blue, with ornamental pendant lamp motifs extending vertically, is undoubtedly a simplified, updated version of the vast Ardabil medallion construction. The unique border of this carpet, has four bouquets of different kind of flowers like the tulip, rose, lily, etc, framed in seperate rows and decorated in Mehrabi design. This exclusive pattern is very unusual from any other carpet. The four outer corners of the main border are decorated with a pair of colourful parrots, followed by a pair of lovely peacocks. The inner mirror border which is decorated with mill-flowers is completely different from the outer mirror border, which is decorated with tulips all around. The edges of this carpet have various Iranian poems from Sadee weaved on them. The design of the carpet is similarly comparable to Safavid rug in different museums.

484 x 346 cm, USD 75 000