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Chinese Art: Ming Dais Cover from the Swan Collection

LOT 44

PROPERTY FROM THE COLLECTION OF WENDEL AND DIANE SWAN
A CHINESE RUG, LATE MING,

40,000—60,000 USD

This is an outstanding piece and one of the gems of the Swan Collection. First of all there is a question about use. Wendel says that it was used as a cover or cushion. At 3ft. 9in. by 3ft. 8in. it is large for a cushion and I have always suspected that it was a dais cover. The structure is very unusual as well, it is half pulled right and half pulled left bifurcating upon it's central axis. At only 25 kpsi it achieves a remarkably curvilinear design through the use of both shared warps and knot packing. The warps are silk and there is silk thread and wear lines where it was attached to something. It is the wear lines that frame the piece in theater border that make me think that it was a dais cover. Sadly Sotheby's images fail to convey the rich gold tons of the field but I will note that the catalog is closer than the on-line images.

40,000—60,000 USD
MEASUREMENTS
approximately 3ft. 9in. by 3ft. 8in. (1.14 by 1.12m.)
DESCRIPTION
17th century
moth damage, minor losses to ends, oxidized browns,

TECHNICAL ANALYSIS
Warp: silk, Z2S, natural ivory
Weft: cotton, Z spun, 2 shoots of bunches of 3 and 4 wefts, white
Pile: wool, asymmetric knot open to the left; some 2-colored packing knots
Density: 5 horizontal, 5 vertical
Sides: single cord wrapped in white cotton
Ends: remnants of cotton flatweave, fraying
Colors: camel, beige, deep blue, mid-blue, light blue, yellow, ivory, walnut

EXHIBITED
Collectors' Potpourri: International Hajji Baba Society, 10th International Conference on Oriental Carpets, Washington, D.C., April 17-21, 2003
LITERATURE AND REFERENCES
Eiland, Murray L., Jr., A World of Oriental Carpets and Textiles, Washington, D.C. 2003, fig. 9, p. 245

CATALOGUE NOTE
With its directional composition and unusual treatment of certain design elements, the present lot is an unusual example of a small seventeenth-century Chinese rug. Generally, similar pieces of comparable size and proportions from the 1600s and the early 1700s have a clearly centralized arrangement of motifs with either a geometric field design or dragons positioned in a round format surrounded by cloud motifs. The present design of two large dragons flanking a central symbol is found on larger works such as the carpets woven for the Imperial Palace in Beijing, see König, Hans and Michael Franses, Glanz der Himmelssöhne: Kaiserlische Teppiche Aus China 1400-1750, London, 2005, pls. 2-4. Here, the dragons have long, undulating tails, which ascend and branch in an unusual fashion when compared to most seventeenth-century dragon carpets, such as those on the two Michaelian rugs, König, Hans and Michael Franses, ibid., pls. 34 and 35. The borders of these rugs and mats are generally geometric in design often having a Greek key motif, see König, Hans and Michael Franses, ibid., pls. 36 and 37 and Tiffany Studios, Antique Chinese Carpets, Tokyo, 1969, pl. II. Here the composition clearly has one viewpoint, emphasized by the mountain and wave motif at the lower center, with symmetry to the design lent by the use of the central round shou symbol floating over three stylized clouds. Probably the most obvious untraditional element of the composition is the placement of the two facing dragons: here the two mythic beasts are not arranged symmetrically in the round as usual, see Franses, Michael, "Early Ninghsia Carpets," Hali, Vol. 5 No. 2, 1982, fig.10, p. 139, but rather facing each other with their bodies filling out the field. The open border is another unusual stylistic choice allowing the meandering pattern formed by the dragons' bodies to dominate the space. The tones of the present lot are typical to pieces from the Ming period, during which shades of blue, apricot, and dark brown were among the most frequently used colors. The use of silk warps in this rug may suggest that this piece was made for the use of members of the aristocracy or the court.

Please note the wear mark at the mid point of the outer border. This rug was stretched over something, stitched in place and then fold wear occurred.

There are still traces of silk thread where this rug was attached. the resultant wear lines are demonstrative of more than use as a simple rug or cover