This purely European country, but with a history of Moorish rule for some hundreds of years, warrants a place in any volume of Oriental rug art for two reasons. The first is that here was the gateway through which the Oriental rug became Europeanized. That is to say, the original Oriental designs copied by the Spanish weavers gradually took on a purely European outlook over the years. Secondly because, for a reason still unknown, Spain introduced a completely different knotting technique from any other rug-producing country. Basically it is the Turkish knot which they use in Spain, but they tie it on one warp thread only, alternate warp threads being used, whereas the Turkish version is tied on two warp threads. The Spanish innovation makes for a rather loosely knotted fabric, but the wool content is almost the same as for Oriental carpets.

Although the earliest surviving examples of Spanish carpets are attributed to the fifteenth century, it is known that when Eleanor, the daughter of Ferdinand III of Castile, came to England to marry Edward I she brought carpets with her. Whether or not these were knotted, or even if they were of Spanish manufacture, is not known, but the records at least set a date when obj ects called carpets were already in use in Spain. There are still some fifteenth-century pieces to be seen in museums, all of which closely resemble the Turkish carpets of that era. Actually there are more fifteenth-century Spanish pieces preserved than any other type. Certainly by the end of the fifteenth century Spain was making carpets herself, even though the work may have been done by immigrants, as suggested by Van de Putt in ‘Some 15th Century Spanish Carpets’ {Burlington Magazine XIX September 1911).

Although still showing Turkish treatment in the designs, the carpets also took on various Christian and heraldic devices, until the seventeenth century when what we regard as a Spanish design had evolved. Because of their background of centuries of Moorish domination, this transposition of design was easier in Spain than perhaps any other country in Europe. The main manufacturing places in the early days were Almeria and Alcaraz. Nowadays, Spain makes carpets of any size, design and colour, in either the Spanish knot or the true Turkish knot.

When weaving began in India it was with Persian weavers reputedly imported by Akbar, with the consent of Shah Abbas of Persia, who was his contemporary. The weaving was centred on Agra and Lahore, and, as may be surmised, the designs had a distinctly Persian flavour about them. Later, while retaining some Persian influence, Indian designers developed their own ideas, the result being a pleasing contrast between the two schools of design.

Early examples from the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries cannot be readily identified as coming from a particular place, and the general tendency is to call any Indian of that period either an Agra or Indo-Persian. There is, in London, however, one Indian carpet, fully documented and known to have been made in the Royal Factory at Lahore. It is in the possession of the Worshipful Company of Girdlers in the city of London, and it was presented to them by Robert Bell, Master of the Company, at the expiry of his second term of office in 1634.

The minutes of the Girdlers Company of 12 August 1634 read: ‘Also, at this Court, Mr. Robert Bell did present a very faire long Turkey Carpitt, with the Company’s Arms thereon, which he freely gave to the use of this Company as a remembrance of his love.’

The carpet, 24 ft x 7 ft 6 inch, was made to lay on the original Court Room table of the Girdlers Company, which was destroyed in the Great Fire of London in 1666; the design incorporates the Coat of Arms of the Company, two panels bearing Robert Bell’s initials, and at each end of the field, Bell’s Coat of Arms.

Robert Bell was a prominent member of the East India Company from the time of its foundation in 1600, and a rather long entry is given in the minutes of this Company for 2 April 1634 to the carpet, which it states was made in Lahore. The reason for the entry is because there was a dispute about payment. It appears that the Company was charged with the cost of manufacture and endeavoured to recover the money from Bell. He stated that he had already settled the account personally. The dispute was never resolved, and later in the same year the directors of the East India Company apparently allowed the matter to drop. The interesting thing about this particular carpet is that here is a ‘Turkey Carpitt’, of Persian design and knotting, undoubtedly made in India. The reference to Turkey is understood when we realize that all Oriental carpets entering England at that time, no matter where they were made, were referred to as such.

Some rather heavy pile Indian carpets come on to the market as Mail’ carpets. It is known that in the last century prisoners, particularly at Agra and Jaipur, were given the task of making extremely tough carpets, and the story goes that good weavers were resentenced at the end of their term, on any pretext that could be found, in order to finish the job they were on.

Since those days, India has remained a carpet producing country, and even today some pieces of excellent quality are made there.

The sub-continent is now split of course, but for the purposes of this volume, the products of Pakistan and Kashmir will be discussed under the heading of India. The former country now makes very finely-knotted rugs, chemically washed, many of them with Turkoman designs and colours. Kashmir has been a producing country for many years, and in addition to the embroideries for which it is justly famous  some exceedingly finely woven pieces have been made there.

The example shown here is in the possession of the author, and it was reputedly made about sixty years ago. Because of the fine knotting, it could only have been made by a child, as it is impossible to imagine such dexterity from adult fingers. Woven on silk warps, with a small amount of silk in the wool pile, the knotting is between fifty and fifty-two per inch each way. This makes about 2600 knots to the square inch, and it is undoubtedly one of the finest knotted examples ever seen. The design is a perfect reproduction, in miniature, of a sixteenth-century Isfahan carpet and, although measuring only 4 ft 3 inch X 1 ft 10 inch, it contains as many knots as an average Oriental carpet twenty times the size. In point of fact this carpet is a miniature reproduction in the real sense of the word, for it was what could best be termed a scaled-down reproduction, knot for knot, of an original.

An interesting sidelight is that this particular rug was exhibited by Messrs Perez, of London, at an exhibition of European and Oriental Carpets at the Royal Water Colour Society’s Galleries, London, in 1946. The rug was displayed in a glass cabinet with miniature furniture placed on it, the latter having been made by disabled ex-servicemen of the Star and Garter Home, Richmond, in aid of whom the exhibition had been promoted. The glass cabinet was not quite long enough for the rug to lie flat, and it was therefore curled over at one end. On visiting the exhibition, Her late Majesty Queen Mary suggested that a magnifying glass should be provided, as the knotting was so fine that it could not be seen properly with the naked eye.

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]]> http://www.coveringrugs.com/indian-rugs-and-carpets/feed/ 0 http://www.coveringrugs.com/china-carpets-and-rugs/ http://www.coveringrugs.com/china-carpets-and-rugs/#comments Wed, 03 Dec 2008 20:21:20 +0000 irfan http://www.coveringrugs.com/?p=93 The earliest Chinese carpets known are from the seventeenth century. This suggests that the Chinese were late starters in the textile field, but it is inconceivable that this country, so advanced in other arts and crafts, should have been behind in this technique which was so prevalent in other parts of the Orient. According to the records, the custom of using carpets as furnishings began as early as 1122 BC, but of course this has never been substantiated by even the smallest practical example. In this context we are, of course, speaking of China proper. Elsewhere in this website it will be seen that the earliest known knotted rug was found near the Outer Mongolian border, but this is attributed to Persia and not to China. Certainly Chinese motifs found their way into the early rugs of Turkey and the Caucasus, which also suggests that this vast country was participating in the craft much earlier than is supposed.

The main centre of production in the nineteenth century appears to have been Pekin, and even today we can find carpets which are attributed to this city. Completely Chinese in character, many with a blue ground colour, they are very different from the modern Chinese product. Exporting carpets from China only started in 1850 and since then the product has undergone many changes to satisfy the appetite of the West. Production is now centred in Tientsin where, since the nineteen-twenties, a fine yarn, high pile carpet has been made which necessitates chemical washing, and the magnificent silky sheen and carved effect gives a most luxurious appearance to this latest development in Oriental art. A further innovation, made in Hong Kong, is a kind of tufted carpet with a latexed backing. As this is not a traditional weave, such products have not been considered in this volume.

Carpets have appeared which are classified as Sinkiang and Ningsia, but these are from areas which could be considered to belong more to Eastern Turkestan than to China, as also would the carpets of Tibet.

One type of knotted rug from China must be mentioned here, as it does not appear in any other country. This is the Pillar rug, made long and very narrow, to surround pillars. This is so skilfully executed that when the rug has been wound spirally around a pillar, the design, hitherto piecemeal, suddenly becomes a coherent whole.

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This country, which shares with Peru, Turkestan and Siberia a climate which can preserve textiles almost indefinitely, has never revealed knotted pile fabrics of earlier date than about the fourth century AD. These are not, however, of the right weave to be classified as Oriental rugs, as the knotting is rather coarse and the pile consists of uncut loops. Some authorities claim that the pile was cut, but as many pieces still contain a looped pile it is a fair contention that it was wear rather than the weavers’ shears which made the separation. They resemble Turkish towels in appearance. Specimens can be seen in a number of museums featuring Egyptian art.

Carpets are mentioned as having been used in Court circles in the twelfth century, but we do not know if they were made in Egypt or even if they were knotted. In the Mameluke period, however, carpets were actually made in Cairo, and the art of manufacture stemmed from Persia and not Turkey, as the knotting used is Persian.

Unfortunately these pieces, of which there are a number in various museums, have tended to be attributed to Damascus, which is totally wrong, because there is no evidence that carpets were ever made in Syria. The explanation may be that there is some resemblance between the effect of the peculiar designs and colours of these pieces, and damask, a cloth also used in that period, particularly in Venice from where it was exported to the rest of Europe.

Always geometric in design, these Cairo or Mameluke pieces have neither forerunners nor copiers. They appear to have been made only during the period up until the conquest which brought Egypt under the Ottoman Empire in 1517. From then onwards a change of style set in, due no doubt to the demands of the Turkish Court, as the new style, while following the old weaving techniques, featured designs somewhat akin to the Persian Court manufacture, that is, properly proportioned pieces, with corner pieces matching the medallion; but they lacked the overall grandeur of the Persian examples owing to the inferior draftsmanship employed.

What kind of carpets Cardinal Wolsey got in reply to his demand for ‘Damascene’ carpets will never be known. In June 1518 he asked the Venetian Ambassador for some pieces, in return for which he would ‘take him before the Council and obtain audience for his arguments in regard to the repeal of the duties of Candian wines imported into England by the Venetian traders’. At the end of that year he got seven pieces. His next demand, still with the repeal of the wine duties. contingent upon it, was for a hundred ‘Damascene’ carpets. This was in 1519. We do not know if he received them all, but we do know that sixty carpets arrived for him from Antwerp, which he graciously accepted. As with all the other producing countries a decline set in, but much earlier than with the others, as from the seventeenth century nothing more is heard of Egyptian carpets, and there was no revival in the nineteenth century.

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The weaving of Kelims has continued, the earlier eastern designs eventually introducing some concessions to western ideas, particularly in the use of flowers, as these countries became Europeanized. In the twentieth century, however, knotted carpets have been produced in most of the Balkan countries, but only as an exporting medium, and today the carpets of Bulgaria, Hungary and Roumania compete in the world markets with the Persian product. Bulgaria has in recent years introduced carpets with classical Persian designs, made with a fine worsted yarn, chemically washed, but with an appearance at least matching most of the contemporary Persian carpets, and at very competitive prices. Whether these rugs will stand the test of time or not is debatable, but for the middle of the twentieth century they look worthy of their cost.

Greece was somewhat apart from her neighbours. In the latter part of the nineteenth century, some Turkish weavers set up their looms and started to make carpets something like those of Isparta in Turkey. These pieces, unwashed but made with a rather glossy fine wool with long pile, graced the late Victorian drawing-rooms of England. For the first time, special designing was used, with open plain fields, to attract the English buyer, and rather than definite colours, pastel shades were used surely the forerunner of the ‘Super-Washed’ Chinese carpet of today.

The vogue lasted well into the nineteen-twenties, and even today there are some old Sparta carpets still being used, albeit a little bit out of date in modern furnishing schemes. It would appear that the name ‘Sparta’ is not in fact derived from the ancient Greek kingdom of that name, but is a corruption of ‘Isparta’ or ‘Isbarta’, the town in Asia Minor from which the originals came.

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