AFSHAR "TREE OF LIFE"
Central Persian Antique Rug

(Connoisseur-Caliber) This small, endearing South Persian tribal rug telegraphs the spirited, nature-based, effervescent approach to life of this 19th-century nomadic peoples. Five Cypress trees create the rug’s tableau, an arboreal structure celebrating the evergreen’s consistent presence throughout the lands where the weavers live. This expertly woven piece is an entirely original design, not a version of an oft-woven sub-groups template. Each of the five emerald green cypresses is flanked on either side by blossoming shrub forms connected by a scarlet and cobalt blue abstracted root system. A secondary, more slender and geometric tree-like motif repeats between them, characterized by square and diamond-shaped “flowers” in stark contrast to the rest of the flora’s more botanical shapes. Such a personal, unprecedented, and expertly crafted rug may well have been woven for a khan or for the khan to give as a gift. Its artistic overtone is both wholly engaging and, simultaneously, mysterious, its symbolism cohesive in a way that can be felt rather than intellectualized, an aptitude honed by the most talented tribal weavers. The orderly, richly colored border showcases the virtuosity of the dyeing, especially the golds and greens, two colorways many artisans are unable to achieve at the depths of this rug’s tonalities from natural dyestuffs. Incredibly, this small gem is in extremely good condition.

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