An Endangered Species:Dragons

There can be no worst expression in our society than the epithet"late".-"Arrived late","late to pay","my late grandmother",etc.Connotations of slowness,weariness and tardiness are implicit.With carpets,the inference is usually that of creative exhaustion,but some examples seem to have gathered themselves at the end of a long reign for one last explosive burst.

Christie`s sold such an item on April the 24th,2012,in London.

1

The Hali APG (H.172-117)rightly draws attention to the Grote-Hasenbalg piece

2

whilst forgetting the Burrell Collection.

3

Two examples mentioned by Serare Yetkin,one of which was published in the Istanbul ICOC Catalogue

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and a carpet once in the possession of Anglo-Persian London,which has been published at least ten times(why?)

5

The group is characterised by a meander border,and dragons which have been reduced to squiggly snakes.One last example,in which the dragons valiantly attempt a return to form,was in the possession of Udo Langauer

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A group of dragon carpets whose Gestalt has been based on Sumakh carpets,although hardly contemporary with the above mentioned,can be included here

7-RB 38-126

The Hali APG for the above piece is misleading,as half the pieces mentioned do not really withstand a critical assignment to the Sumakh-inspired group(Hali 70-140)

It was presumably modelled on such a Sumakh

8-Lefevre 26.11.1976

Rippon Boswell is clearly the place to sell such things,having had 3 in the last 21 years

9-RB 11 May 1991-143A

Described in Hali 58 as a Kurdish carpet,the Zadah Dragon rug comes close to the original in style and panache

10-RB 14 May 1994

The Jerrehian carpet could certainly give Christies 2012 example a run for the money

11-Sotheby`s 8.10 1999-46

A last member of this group,clearly well into the 19th century,was published by Schürmann in 1976

12

Finally,if the greatest of all Dragon Sumakhs is the one most closely approximating its progenitor,then the award certainly goes to the carpet sold at Christies on 12th October 1989,-

13-see Hali 48-89

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Few examples of these types have survived.More will surely appear,sooner or later(oops!)

2012-Year of the Dragon