BAKSHAISH
Northwest Persian Antique Carpet

(High-Collectible) ("One of “60 Best-of-Their-Type Rugs Sold in 2022") This quintessential carpet piece is a collector's dream. It is a first-rate example of everything that gave the brilliant Bakshaish oeuvre the reputation for the most audacious invention, unrelenting spontaneity, virtuoso sense of spacing, and preeminent use of color striation. This rug's extraordinarily simple medallion eloquently states the case for this style's place in the pantheon of Persian folk art carpets. Whimsically drawn, it is outlined by a stepped edge with vertically aligned pendants that culminates, in a stoke of genius, in the ancient "ashik" motif. The medallion rests upon an unadorned field of masterfully abrashed glimmering vermilion. Four luminous cerulean corner spandrels enclose an array of imaginatively stylized floral motifs alongside marvelous domicile-shaped, apotropaic talismans. A one-of-a-kind pattern of colorful broad flowerheads, brilliantly textured by intentional color shifts, playfully compresses and expands along the room-size carpet's alabaster main border. A refreshing spontaneity is applied to every individualistically drawn motif throughout the composition.

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