BERLIN DRAGON AND PHŒNIX RUG
(See page [334])
According to recognized authorities the so-called Polish carpets were not woven in Poland at all, but were products of Persia, and the so-called Ispahan rugs were not made at Ispahan or even in Persia, but came from the city of Herat in Western Afghanistan. Of the former several hundred are still in existence, the best of which are in the European courts and museums, about forty being in the United States, while nearly every collection contains one or more of the Herats.
The Ardebil Carpet.—Without a doubt the most famous Oriental carpet now known is the mosque carpet of Ardebil owned by the South Kensington Museum in London.
It is a Persian masterpiece and was made in 1536 by one Maksoud for the Ardebil Mosque. In size it is thirty-four and one-half by seventeen and one-half feet and contains in the neighborhood of 32,000,000 knots, about 530 to the square inch, and was purchased by the South Kensington Museum for $12,500, although, if put up at auction to-day, it would doubtless bring many times that sum. The ground is of a rich blue and is covered with the most intricate of old Persian floral designs. It has a central medallion in pale yellow with corners to match. There are three border stripes, one wide one with a narrow one on either side of it. The ground of the outer stripe is of a tawny yellow with small floral designs; the ground of the inner stripe is cream colored and that of the main stripe is of a rich brown with round and elongated panels alternating and surrounded by a profusion of floral lines. Within these panels are to be found in Arabic the following inscription: "I have no refuge in the world other than thy threshold; My head has no protection other than this porch way; The work of the slave of the Holy place, Maksoud of Kashan." In the year 942 (which corresponds to A.D. 1536.)[B]
The Dragon and Phœnix Rug of the Kaiser Frederich Museum, Berlin, is a Central Asia Minor weave of the 14th century and is probably the oldest existing rug that has been identified with the representation of a similar fabric in a painting. It was purchased for the Berlin museum by Dr. Bode, from a church in Central Italy on account of its resemblance to a rug in the fresco painting representing the "Marriage of the Foundlings," one of the series painted by Domenico di Bartolo in Spedale di Santa Maria della Scala in Senna about 1440.
In design it represents a dragon and a phœnix in deadly combat.
EAST INDIAN HUNTING RUG
IN THE BOSTON MUSEUM OF FINE ARTS
BY COURTESY OF MR. SIDNEY N. DEANE
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