Ararat Rugs Dragon Rug, Antique Caucasus Museum Revival Carpet, Natural Dyed

There has long been a fascination with the symbolism of the dragon and its depiction in carpet weavings. The design of ‘Dragon’ carpets consists of a field pattern composed of different colored overlaid lattices formed of pointed, serrated leaves creating intersecting lozenges, which alternately contain palmettes and are flanked by confronting stylized dragons, birds, or animal figures. The most archaic of the ‘Dragon’ carpets include dragon motifs with birds and running animals relatively naturalistically drawn, which stand either alone or in confronting pairs facing a tree. The Graf carpet, originally found in a Damascene mosque, now in the Islamiches Museum, Berlin, is considered to be the oldest example of this type, see Serare Yetkin, Early Caucasian Carpets in Turkey, Vol. II, London, 1978, p.8, fig.118. Yetkin defines four types of ‘Dragon’ carpet: ‘Archaic’, ‘Four-Dragon’, ‘Dragon-and-Phoenix’ and as a further combined development of the latter, the ‘Two-Dragon’ style, of which the present carpet falls into the ‘Dragon-and-Phoenix group along with other examples, some of which include two fragments, one in the Museum fur Kunst und Gerwerbe, Hamburg; another in the Christian Museum, Esztergom, Hungary, a complete carpet in the Kier collection; an incomplete example in the Textile Museum, Washington, D.C; the ‘Cassirer’ Dragon carpet in the Thyssen-Bornemisza collection, Lugano; the Ali Pasa Mosque carpet in Tokat, and a further example in the Vakiflar Hali Museum, Istanbul (S. Yetkin, op. cit. pp.16-20). It has been suggested that the earliest examples of the Caucasian ‘Dragon’ carpets...

There has long been a fascination with the symbolism of the dragon and its depiction in carpet weavings. The design of ‘Dragon’ carpets consists of a field pattern composed of differ...

The source of the rug comes from the book Orient Star – A Carpet Collection, E. Heinrich Kirchheim, Hali Publications Ltd, 1993 nr.57. There has long been a fascination with the symbolism of the dragon and its depiction in carpet weavings. The design of ‘Dragon’ carpets consists of a field pattern composed of different colored overlaid lattices formed of pointed, serrated leaves creating intersecting lozenges, which alternately contain palmettes and are flanked by confronting stylized dragons, birds, or animal figures. The most archaic of the ‘Dragon’ carpets include dragon motifs with birds and running animals are relatively naturalistically drawn, which stand either alone or in confronting pairs facing a tree. The Graf carpet, originally found in a Damascene mosque, now in the Islamiches Museum, Berlin, is considered to be the oldest example of this type, see Serare Yetkin, Early Caucasian Carpets in Turkey, Vol. II, London, 1978, p.8, fig.118. Yetkin defines four types of ‘Dragon’ carpet: ‘Archaic’, ‘Four-Dragon’, ‘Dragon-and-Phoenix’ and as a further combined development of the latter, the ‘Two-Dragon’ style, of which the present carpet falls into the ‘Dragon-and-Phoenix group along with other examples, some of which include two fragments, one in the Museum fur Kunst und Gerwerbe, Hamburg; another in the Christian Museum, Esztergom, Hungary, a complete carpet in the Kier collection; an incomplete example in the Textile Museum, Washington, D.C; the ‘Cassirer’ Dragon carpet in the Thyssen-Bornemisza collection, Lugano; the Ali Pasa Mosque carpet in Tokat, and a further example in the Vakiflar Hali Museum, Istanbul (S. Yetkin, op. cit. pp.16-20). It has been suggested that the earliest examples of the Caucasian ‘Dragon’ carpets...

The source of the rug comes from the book Caucasian Carpets, E. Gans-Reudin, Thames and Hudson, Switzerland 1986, pg.37. This luxurious and varied work is known as the Cassirer drago...

Rare Caucasian Rug Caucasus Rug Size: 176×224 cm This wonderful rug is a formerly unpublished addition to a small and rare group of blue-ground Caucasian rugs whose design is dominated by a prominent decahedral gabled ivory medallion. The overall pattern echoes that of a group of earlier 17th and 18th century north west Persian carpets, whose designs were based upon the Persian garden plan known as the “Four Gardens” or Chahar Bagh (M.S.Dimand & J. Mailey, Oriental Rugs in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 1973, p.84, fig.116). The smaller lozenges that extend above and below the central medallion on the present lot, are linked by a narrow vertical channel which represents the streams and ornamental pools that feed the flowering trees and shrubs on either side. The once eight-pointed medallion, that is an archaic form found in early Anatolian and Caucasian rugs, and which continues to be used throughout the nineteenth century in Fachralo rugs...

The Rust field scattered with minor stylized flower heads, hooked panels and minute cross-motifs around a column of ivory octagonal panels containing radiating flower heads and minut...

The Rust field scattered with minor stylized flower heads, hooked panels and minute cross-motifs around a column of ivory octagonal panels containing radiating flower heads and minut...

AN intermediate square size antique Caucasian shirvan pictorial rug circa 1875. Measures: 4'1" x 4'9''.