rugtracker

Saturday 28 July 2012

mystery rug

Myers Collection
Published in 1930 by Koechlin and Migeon(Oriental Art,plate LXXXII)this small silk fragment with animal design was described as"the oldest specimen of carpet known with the exception of the small piece with Cufic inscriptions from the excavations at Fostat"Collection G.H Myers,Washington.Size 27.5 x 13.75 ins(70 x 35 cms)
The carpet is now in the Cleveland Museum of Art,described as from "Rayy,Persia"

Gift of Milton Girod-Nr.1988.243



Postscript 4 April 2023:

The carpet was returned by Myers to the seller Paul Mallon,after the admonitions of Maurice Dimand,who considered it a fake.Mallon`s stepson Milton Girod-Mallon donated it to the Cleveland Museum of Art,where it still slumbers,considered for a long time to be a 15th century Persian rug.

After careful dye analysis in 2018 the rug was proven to be a later example containing dyes which were first invented in the late 19th century.

Photos of the rug`s back on the Cleveland website reveal it to possess a structure not unlike Tibetan carpets,positing an origin somewhere in Central-Asia (Uzbek Julkhyr carpets also employ such a technique)It probably has a Persian knot.

If it is a fake the question is:of what?





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