Mumbai, 27 January: Magnus Svennson, a corporate dealer, evaluator and appraiser of antique oriental carpets, along with being a consultant for insurance companies for relevant industry, is the advisor for AstaGuru’s upcoming Textile Auction.
Svennson, who has evaluated the carpets and rugs for the auction, shared his views on the on three of the highlight lots.
“In the second edition of AstaGuru’s textile and carpet auction, they have gathered an exquisite collection of carpets ranging from village carpets made in rural homes to ateliers made carpets made by master weavers in various ateliers and workshops throughout Iran and Persia,” he said.
Lot No 85: Bidjar Rug
Provenance, age and condition are crucial to the evaluation of an antique carpet. The Bidjar rug, which is a part of the auction, is a fine example of this.
The rug is woven in the city or in a village near or around the city of Bidjar early 20th century.
This Kurdish wool is produced by sheep grazing in the Zagros mountain is unsurpassed in quality and you can feel the velvety shiny look from it.
Together with this organically dyed yarn, it constitutes a beautiful carpet in all ways.
Unfortunately, the knowledge of dying and assorting the wool as they did in the early 20th century is now lost in this region hence this carpet can’t be produced again in the way it is.
And you can clearly look at the deep indigo blue, ranging all the colours to madder and to green and together with the naïve design and the naïve animals depicted here.
There is a deer lying here and there’s an animal which we clearly cannot tell what it is.
You can look at its tongue and its red eyes. It’s something that you don’t see any more in modern production.
Hence, this 100-year-old rug in mint condition is really sought-after, valuable and appreciated by buyers all over the world.
Lot No 25: QUM Carpet
The stunning Qum carpet is another example of the carpets included in the sale. Qum, which is the holy city of Iran is a relatively new producer of fine rugs.
This fine carpet is knotted on silk with silk highlights on ground wool. The overall pelmet design with stylised birds and flowers makes it a very nice rug to furnish a room with.
The condition of this nearly 90-year-old carpet is fantastic and the silk highlights in contrast to the ivory ground wool make it an extremely elegant carpet.
Lastly, he explains why the Tabriz Wool carpet is a carpet lovers’ dream, “This Tabriz carpet is the third example of the carpets included in the sale.
Lot No 93: Tabriz Carpet
Tabriz carpet in a very large size measuring more than 17 feet long and 12 feet wide is an exquisite example of the Tabriz carpets made late in the 19th century early 20th century in the Tabriz workshop.
It origins from the Safavid period, from the 16th century, in Iran. What makes this particular carpet so stunning is actually the naturally aged colouring.
It ranges from dark blue to soft blue to yellow, green, soft purple, pink and it makes it an interior decorators dream.
The auction goes live online on 28 & 29 January 2020. Visit the official AstaGuru website for details.
AstaGuru's second Textile Auction features a mélange of exclusive textiles, vintage collectibles
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