Polonaise Rug, first half 17th century

Not on View

Medium

silk pile with gold and silver brocade on cotton warp and cotton and silk weft

Dimensions

overall: 216 x 141 cm (85 1/16 x 55 1/2 in.)

Credit Line

Widener Collection

Accession Number

1942.9.474

Artists / Makers

Isfahan 17th Century (artist)

Image Use

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Provenance

Baron Rothschild Collection, Paris (possibly Alphonse de Rothschild [1827-1905]). Peter A. B. Widener, Lynnewood Hall, Elkins Park, Pennsylvania, by 1910; inheritance from Estate of Peter A. B. Widener, by gift through power of appointment of Joseph E. Widener, Elkins Park, Pennsylvania; gift 1942 to NGA.

Associated Names

Rothschild, Alphonse de, Baron
Widener, Joseph E.
Widener, Peter Arrell Brown

Exhibition History

1910: Loan Exhibition of Early Oriental Rugs, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 1910-1911, 49, no. 40, repro. (cat. by Wilhelm R. Valentiner).

Technical Summary

Warp: cotton, Z4S, ivory. Alternate warps depressed. Weft: x3, first and third shoots cotton, 2Z, unbleached, relatively straight. Second shoot sinuous silk, U, light orange. Metal: silver, S-wound on U ivory silk core; gilded silver on tan; some of the core shows a Z-twist. Brocaded over 3 under 1 on the upper warps. Pile: silk, U, asymmetrical knotting open at the left. Hor. 18,17. Vert. 13,15½. Approximately 250 knots to the square inch. Ends: warps doubled back in groups of 4, with alternate groups cut, creating the foundation for a half-inch tape of Soumak brocading in light orange and light green silk with occasional wound metal strips in a modified herringbone effect. From the foundation of the tape a 5½-inch fringe of light green and orange silk remains (U2Z)2S. Sides: two cables of (Z4S)4Z ivory cotton, the inner within the cotton weft. The silk weft returned on the outer. An interwoven selvage of light orange silk on the two cables appears to be mostly replacement. Colors: ivory, black-brown, orange-brown, yellow-orange, light pink, flame red-orange, dull light orange, light golden yellow, various shades of green and blue, dull violet, purple-gray, pale and dark gray. Most of the metal, especially the silver, has degraded, diminishing the pile. Other areas, such as the border's ground, retain most of the original pile height. The back is weathered, but some colors are better preserved than on the face. The rug is generally rather stiff.

Bibliography

1910: Loan Exhibition of Early Oriental Rugs. Exh. cat. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 1910-1911: 49, no. 40, repro. (cat. by Wilhelm R. Valentiner).

1935: Inventory of the Objects d'Art at Lynnewood Hall, Elkins Park, Pennsylvania, The Estate of the Late P.A.B. Widener. Philadelphia, 1935: 129.

1968: Spuhler, Friedrich-Karl, "Seidene Repräsentationsteppiche der mittleren bis späten Safawidenzeit. Die sog. Polenteppiche." Ph.D. diss., Free University of Berlin, 1968: 200, no. 105.

1997: Torchia, Robert Wilson. "Widener's Gift." Hali 92 (May 1997): 88-97, 120, fig. 2.

1998: Bower, Virginia, Josephine Hadley Knapp, Stephen Little, and Robert Wilson Torchia. Decorative Arts, Part II: Far Eastern Ceramics and Paintings; Persian and Indian Rugs and Carpets. The Collections of the National Gallery of Art Systematic Catalogue. Washington, D.C., 1998: 299-301, color repro.