It’s the Islamic sales in London very soon. I usually focus on the ceramics, but this week I wanted to point out some almost-magic carpets, that you can go and see in person, if you’re near London.
For example, in the Christies’ Oriental Rugs and Carpets Sale:
– Lots 28 and 29 are two especially interesting Bakhtiari carpets – with
inscription cartouches dedicated to two well-known Bakhtiari politicians (Lot 29 is
especially gorgeous)
– Lot 148 is a seventeenth century Isfahan carpet. It’s very much the
worse for wear: one end has been chopped off, one border is new, and
there are lots of repairs. But despite all this, you can get more than the ghost of an
idea of how very beautiful it was once like.
– Last, but not least, Lot 150 is what to buy if you have £50-70,000 to spare. Then, you can buy a stunning sixteenth century carpet – its’ design draws on the ornament seen in fifteenth century manuscripts in the ‘international Timurid’ style. I havent quite understood how the its definitely Persian – when its nearest comparator was recently re-classified as Mughal. Anyway, its colours are, even now, remarkable.
Then, if you have a moment, why not read the Secret History of the Flying Carpet – with all its 13th century references, including to Toranian air/carpet-borne archers. Linked to this, the BBC have recently published a Magic Carpet Flight Manual.
Of course, such a good historical idea is hardly likely to completely disappear, and if you click here, you can see a Japanese astronaut experimenting with modern-day flying carpets (with velcro getting around the important question of how-to-stay-on-a-carpet-as-you-fly).