Lot 157

HAJI-JALILI TABRIZ RUG

The fame of Tabriz in the 19th century and in the export era until the 1930s was not only due to skillful Persian merchants, but also to craftsmen who were renowned for their excellent workmanship of quality wool, their refined work with dyes and, last but not least, the harmony of the composition of large palace carpets, often intended for export to the West. Probably the most famous master in the 19th century was Haji Jalili, whose almost delicate carpets became highly sought after, especially for their muted shades of gold, pink, grey, soft brown, etc., delicately blended into all-over floral designs with often only subtly suggested unobtrusive medallions. His legacy in the first decades of the 20th century was to create a legacy that was not just a simple, unadorned design. The best manufactories in Tabriz followed suit in the early years of the 20th century, and one of them apparently created this representative carpet, which impresses with its seemingly unobtrusive execution of the geometric composition of the 'herati', formed in the central field by jagged leaves around a diamond-shaped diamond medallion with a rosette - according to various views, these twisted leaves resemble fish around a pond ('diamond'), hence the Persian name of the design, shortened to 'mahi' ('fish'). The main border of floral character is surrounded by numerous outer and inner bands of floral elements, and together they form a striking whole that is an established classic in the world of Oriental carpets.