SERAPI
Northwest Persian Antique Carpet

(High-Collectible) ("New Arrivals Gallery") This strongly desirable 150-year-old carpet radiates a winning folk art drama through a combination of skillful draftsmanship and soothing 19th-century colors. Its intriguing primitive quality harkens to earlier Serapi patterns with a spontaneous exuberance highly prized in this ancient village style. Its commanding medallion begins with a square centerpiece surrounded by an “animal skin” motif (local folklore holds that the earliest “Serapi” carpets had actual tanned leather hides as “medallions”). This is further enveloped by eight overscale petals adorned with abstract botanical elements. Trefoilesque fan pendants extend along the central axis to sweep alongside a network of budding vinery that spreads like a roadmap between the floral forms revealing ingenious asymmetries. Great swaths of skillfully applied color fluxes called abrash imbue the organically derived hues with an arresting beauty that has become more significant and mellowed with time. A gently patinated surface of a highly durable medium-height pile exposes the glistening quality of the oily mountain wool used in the construction of this handsome carpet.



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