A Khamseh 'Chicken-Design' Rug, South Persia

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A KHAMSEH 'CHICKEN-DESIGN' RUG, SOUTH PERSIA, MID 19TH CENTURY “The central panel and corner areas of this rug are dominated by facing pairs of chickens but there are secondary and tertiary bird forms among symbols, many of which may be ancient. Small palmettes are present especially in the blue-ground corner areas of the rug. The red ground central panel contains a small octagonal medallion that has outward-facing bird-head arrow forms and a central endless knot rosette The main border has a repeating pattern of facing birds that enclose a tree with an hour-glass shape, a border type more typically found in Khamseh bags. Two guards have the typical reciprocal two-colour triangle pattern. There are overcast single cord sides in bands of multiple colours, missing in places. The ends are missing. The wool pile is symmetrically knotted, the wefts are in madder wool, with two shoots, the warps are in bicoloured natural wool.” (Benjamin, op.cit., LITERATURE: 3rd ed., 2004, pp. 44-45 “This is a very beautiful early Khamseh bird rug. It is worn in places but still retains its overall attractive design. The central medallion has ancient origins and Thompson has argued (Thompson, J. Centralised Designs . In Von Konya bis Kokand. Seltene Orientteppische III, 1980, Eberhart Herrmann, pages 7-27) that these central octagonal medallions have their origins in Chinese and Japanese Buddhist representations of the lotus flower inspiring modified designs in early Turkish carpets.” (Benjamin, op.cit., p. 44)