highlights at larta 2015 - The London Guild of Weavers, Spinners

HIGHLIGHTS AT LARTA 2015
16-19 April at The Showroom, Penfold Street, Marylebone, London NW8
www.larta.net
LARTA The London Antique Rug & Textile Art Fair is the only specialist rug event of its calibre in the UK and is
held once a year, timed to coincide with the major auction houses Spring Asian art sales.
Exhibitor: Andy Lloyd
An C18th Tibetan Wangden Lamas seating meditation
square. These thick heavy rugs were woven in the remote
Wangden valley of Tibet and used in the monasteries
there as insulation from the cold stone floors. The normal
monks sat on long runners made up of many squares but
the elders and Lamas had individual squares with more
elaborate decoration such as this one. The double dortje
seen here is an ancient Buddhist motif which came to
Tibet with Buddhism in the 7th century. The knotting
technique is also used in this area alone and these rugs
have become known as "Wangdens".
size 119 x 109 cm
price £4800
AARON NEJAD, the organiser of LARTA, says Tibetan
weavings are “in vogue right now, for various reasons.
First, Tibetan weaving is a relatively new area of collecting
and the market is still finding price levels and stability.
Second, wangdens are used in Buddhist monasteries and I
think there is certainly interest in spiritual beliefs outside
of the Judeo-Christian tradition which offer an alternative
system of beliefs. Third, Tibet is the new destination for
travellers looking for different experiences and culture.
The collector or decorator who likes these pieces is unlikely
to be the traditional rug or textile aficionado, so it's
tapping into a new group.”
Exhibitor: Hagop Manoyan (New York)
Bordjalou Kazak rug
South West Caucasus
circa 1880
size 6'.11"x 5'.3" (211x160 cm)
Fresh to the market.
In good condition and pile.
The price is around $15000 (US dollars)
Exhibitor: Ornamentum
Fine antique Agra carpet
North India (possibly Lahore)
circa 1890-1900
3.15m x 2.40m
Silk on Silk Foundation
An exceptionally fine pure silk carpet of the ‘Chelsea
carpet’ design. This carpet is a remarkable example
of how India had been producing weavings which
were not only comparable but in some ways superior
to those produced in nearby contemporary Persia
.The use of silk was highly unusual and almost
certainly this carpet would have been specially
commissioned.
Exhibitor: Aaron Nejad
Silk 'Mohktashem' Keshan Rug
Central Persia, circa 1880
1.30m x 1.20m
Excellent condition
£12,500
Keshan is a town in Central Persia where carpets have
been made since the 17th century. In the late 19th
century, there was a revival of carpet weaving in Persia
and many workshops sprung up in various established
weaving centres including Keshan. Mokhtashem was an
enigmatic figure who was considered to be one of the
great master weavers of the early revival period in
Keshan. He was mainly known for his wool rugs which had
a distinctive angular drawing to curvilinear traditional
designs, but he also produced a small group of silk rugs in
his workshop which are highly prized today. This rug is a
small example from this group.
Exhibitor: Aaron Nejad
Bokhara Suzani
circa 1850
An exceptional example with bold drawing and
colouring.
Excellent condition.
Price £18,000
Stylistically this Suzani has a Moghul Indian
influence.
Exhibitor: Joss Graham
Silk velvet chapan (woman's coat)
Bokhara, Central Asia c. 1900.
The pattern is woven in the ikat technique; velvet
ikat (baghmal) was only made for a very short period
between 1880 and 1910. The coat is lined with
Russian roller-printed cotton. Velvet was a favoured
fabric in Central Asia and denotes high status. Early
European travellers to Central Asia complained of
the gaudy costume of the region: we now appreciate
their superb design and colours with wonder and
awe.
Price: £9,500
Exhibitor: Joss Graham
Rare embroidered silk chyrpy (woman's mantle)
Hand-woven, silk-embroidered with ladder or lacing
stitch (kesti)
Tekke Turkmen c.1900
The chyrpy was reserved for special ceremonies and
worn over a head-dress, with its long false sleeves
fastened together and hanging down the
back. Tulips are the main motifs on these intricately
embroidered robes. The yellow chyrpy was reserved
for older married women with a high position in
society.
Immaculate condition.
Price £12,000
Exhibitor: James Cohen
This beautiful little fragment of Persian carpet is tiny,
at 37 x 24cm, but historically significant as it
represents the very best of the weavings coming out
of Kirman, where it was made, in the 16th century.
£6000
Very similar fragments- some not much bigger- are in the
permanent display at the V & A Museum. It is referred to
as a 'Vase carpet' fragment because if you see a complete
example the field is filled with large flowers that issue
from a vase at the bottom, large flowers like the one in
this piece. It is not known how many, if any, complete
examples survive but it is due to their exceptionally strong
weave that any survive at all and it is so technically
difficult to weave that it cannot be recreated today.
Exhibitor: James Cohen
“This Greek embroidery is peerless. Absolutely
fantastic, rare as hens’ teeth! The only known better
example is in the Benaki museum in Athens and it is
a fragment.”
These fantastic embroideries were made on the Greek
island of Skyros at the end of the 17th or beginning of the
18th centuries as a cottage industry. Very few feature
these dramatic sailing ships, complete with tiny sailors,
accompanying dinghies and underwater beasts. Most
have a standard design of simply posies and are not
terribly interesting but this one stands head and shoulders
above the rest. Only at the Benaki museum in Athens do
they have better examples.
Believe it or not, they were made for guests to dry their
hands on, and would have been draped over the back of
each chair, so that the ships on both ends would be seen
upright. They are always rather small pieces: this one is 35
x 120cm and is incredibly finely worked in multi-coloured
silks on a muslin ground. The horseman is right in the
middle of the towel and he is approximately 7cm tall.
“It is very hard to price something like this as so few come
on the market and so I think it is a bit of a bargain at
£15,000“
Exhibitor: Kennedy Carpets
Qashqai rug in near mint condition with original ends
and selvedges, c.1875
2.37 x 1.34m
£20,000 + VAT.
The Qashqai is a confederation of smaller tribal
groupings. This rug was woven by a nomadic subgroup known as Shekarlu. Their rugs are identified
by the use of peacock motifs and serrated leaves
(white angled design) below. What they wove in to
their rug designs were the most precious things in
their environment, like the goats (shown above the
peacocks), which were their livelihood. The peacock
is a royal bird and therefore a symbol of status and
prosperity. It may be that the Shekarlu bred these
birds.
The Qashqai come from the Fars province in SW
Persia (Iran), the nearest major city is Shiraz. These
tribes migrated through vast provinces and over the
Zagros Mountains travelling from their summer to
winter grounds.
Exhibitor: Kennedy Carpets
Anatolian Kilim
from Konya-Nigde
mid-19th century
1.71 x 3.36m.
A rare small kilim
(see Petsopolus ‘100 Kilims’, plate 80)