TYPE: a ningxia ‘pillar’ carpet

CIRCA: early 1800’s

A so-called ‘pillar’ carpet made in the Ningxia region of China specifically to go around columns or ‘pillars’ in a Buddhist monastery. The five clawed (Imperial) dragon is portrayed in disjointed ‘segments’ so as when the carpet is wrapped around a column / pillar, it appears that the dragon is writhing around the column / pillar.  Here the blue scaled dragon is depicted chasing the precious jewel through clouds, and has long whiskers protruding from his nose, while above the dragon floats a benign mythical beasts head. Clouds, mountains and waves anchor the bottom, while a single key meander, and above it a strip of un-dyed brown wool, anchor the top. An earlier owner has in this instance edge the top and bottom in red cloth, so it can be hung from a wall. Given that the ends are intact, and the red colour cloth, it points to this more recent ‘addition’ possibly having been done by a Buddhist monastery, that hung the carpet as opposed to wrapped it around a column.  A stunning old piece in very good condition with all natural dyes. A collectors piece.

SIZE: 2.25m x 0.84m

WARP: cotton

WEFT: cotton

KNOT COUNT: 30 kpsi

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