10/26/2018
Antique Silk Persian Kerman Prayer Rug
Circa 1860
This charming silk rug, is centred by a single cypress tree flanked by hoopoe birds, with heavily laden pomegranate trees to either side. The strikingly beautiful hoopoe bird is regarded by many as the ruler of the avian kingdom and was a symbol of purity for the early Persians, cast as the key character in one of the most famous Persian poems, The Conference of the Birds. The hoopoe represents a Sufi master who leads a group of thirty pupils on a pilgrimage to find God.
The overall arrangement of the design most likely stems from earlier 'Tree and Flower' Mughal carpets produced in Kashmir in the seventeenth century, such as a large pair of carpets, one in the Museu Calouste Gulbekian, Lisbon, the other in the Blau collection (Daniel Walker, Flowers Underfoot, New York, 1997, fig.98). India and Persia were closely linked in this period and an increasingly strong Indian stylistic influence can be seen in all the arts of Persia, so it is not surprising that local versions of Mughal carpets began to appear relatively quickly. A closely related silk Kirman rug with three, rather more angular Cypress trees, but with similar paired birds and fruiting decoration, formerly part of a private New Jersey collection
