Description

This Persian carpet cartoon board probably dates to around the middle of the 20th century.

It consists of a sequence of seven boards of varying heights and constitutes the design patterns for, almost certainly, a pictorial Isfahan carpet. This naghsheh, or pattern, is drawn onto graph paper which has been varnished for protection and functions as the template for the weavers to work from. It depicts different scenes from the lives of  women: a woman spinning, milking a cow, making cheese, cooking on a fire, making bread dough, plying wool, tending to animals and looking after a child. These activities, all in the bottom half, are daily chores of a woman.  A man on the right is sitting in front of a resting camel; he is playing an instrument, which introduces the themes found in the top half of the image. These are related to leisure activities: two people in conversation, one of them playing a lute, one woman dancing, presumably to the sound of the music, one woman approaching on horse back, and a courting couple behind a boulder of rocks in the top right hand corner; the man is holding a bottle, the woman is extending her cup towards him.

It is common to this day to find specialist shops in the bazaar selling cartoons on graph paper. These are used by weavers on the loom for them to copy the design and roll up the sections already worked. The fact that this cartoon was mounted on several pieces of plywood would suggest that it could have been used multiple times and/or by different weavers in the same workshop who were working at different stages of a carpet with this basic design.

This is a very interesting element of the carpet making process documenting one way in which designs were copied. It is a rare find and of academic interest. It also is a sweet piece of wall art.

£1,750