CIRCA: 1700’s / 18th C.
A very old golden-yellow carpet from either the Ningxia or Beijing region that was made in the 1700’s / 18th century. It came out of Tibet in the 1960’s hence the blue heavy cloth edging (as is seen on many carpets from Tibet, or used by Tibetans). The center field is elegantly designed and features eight lotus flowers on trellis-like leafy vines while the main border features ancient foliate dragons with only their heads recognisable as such, their bodies remain ‘geometric’ in shape. It is missing a small amount of the carpet’s woven pile border at either end (but not the along the sides, they have just been overlapped by the blue cloth) and it has several very old repairs and some holes (as can be seen in some of the photos). There is a stabilising strip of thick felt under the blue cloth border at both ends, whereas the blue overlapping cloth border along the sides is just covering the original corroded-brown wool pile border of the carpet itself – i.e. there is no felt underlay along the sides; the cloth has seemingly been put along there one might assume just to give an all-round ‘symmetry’ with the ends. The size is 203cm x 123cm, all the colours are from natural dyes and both the warp and weft are hand-spun cotton. It has been in the one persons hands since being collected from a Tibetan in Kathmandu, Nepal, circa 1970, and this is the first time on the market since then. A genuinely very old Chinese carpet suitable for a collector who is not perturbed by any condition issues.