A Safavid silk and metal thread ‘Polonaise’ rug, Central Persia (probably Isfahan), early 17th century

An Important early 17th Century Safavid Silk and Metal Thread 'Polonaise' rug, formerly in the Collections of Judge Elbert Gary, and of John D Rockefeller, gifted by his son Winthrop Rockefeller to the Arkansas Museum of Fine Arts Foundation in 1978; now being sold to benefit their Acquisitions Fund, this rug is being offered for sale for the first time since the Judge Gary sale in 1928.

Elbert Henry Gary (October 8, 1846 – August 15, 1927) was one of the founders of US Steel, in 1901, together with his partners J P Morgan, Andrew Carnegie and Charles M Schwab. Both the city of Gary, Indiana, and Gary, West Virginia were named for him. The luxurious mansions established in New York in the late 19th and early 20th centuries by tycoons such as Gary, Henry G Marquand, Charles T Yerkes and Senator William A. Clark, Henry Clay Frick, John Pierpont Morgan and the Rockefellers were filled with works of art, furniture and paintings from the homes of the Old World aristocracy, supplied by dealers who flocked to New York from all over Europe and the Middle East, including the Duveen Brothers from London, Parisian dealers such as Durand-Ruel and Gimpel & Wildenstein, others such as Parish Watson, and from Istanbul and Alexandria, specialists in Islamic art such as Hagop Kevorkian, Dikran Khan Kelekian, Kouchakji Frères and Vitall Benguiat. The names of these collectors and dealers still reverberate today in the provenances of many of the more important middle eastern carpets in museums, collections and auctions worldwide.

Judge Gary’s collection was offered for sale in 1928, the year after he died, by the American Art Association. The American Art Association, a New York art gallery and auction house, was founded by James F. Sutton, R. Austin Robertson, and Thomas E. Kirby in 1883, originally at 6 East 23rd Street; Kirby was their principal auctioneer. (Sutton and Robertson had previously established the American Art Gallery in 1879, which closed in 1882.) The galleries moved to 30 East 57th Street in 1922. In 1923, Kirby retired and sold the American Art Association to Cortlandt Field Bishop (1870-1935), who contracted Hiram Parke and Otto Bernet to run the auction house; Parke and Bernet were the auctioneers who conducted the Judge Gary sale. In 1929 the company merged with the Anderson Auction Company to form the American Art Association-Anderson Galleries, Inc. In 1938, the firm was taken over by Parke-Bernet Galleries, Inc., which had been formed a year earlier; they in turn were taken over by Sotheby’s in 1964. Purchasers of several of the rugs from the sale are listed in the copy of the catalogue in Sotheby’s archives and are noted below.

The introduction to the Gary sale by Leslie Hyam and Shirley Falcke notes “The collections of Judge Gary and of Mr. John D. Rockefeller, Jr., have long been noted for their magnificent carpets. The luxurious "Polonaise" rugs of the early seventeenth century, woven in silks and gold and silver to the command of the Persian Shahs, by whom they were given as presents to foreign monarchs, represent the apotheosis of Eastern weaving; and ten important pieces, one of them from the Charles T. Yerkes collection, attest the splendor and richness of the courts of Shah Abbas and his tyrannical successor, Sufi. The two finest of these rugs [Nos. 302 and 303] are superior in beauty of design and wealth of coloring to any that we have been privileged to inspect.”

The ten ‘Polonaise’ rugs and carpets referred to, were lots 292 (purchased by Mrs William); 293 (purchased by Parish-Watson, later donated to the MET by Mrs Byron C Foy, inv, no. 52.136.1); (294 Ispahan: N/A); 295 (Parish-Watson); 296 (reputedly to Vitall Benguiat); (297 Ispahan: N/A); 298 (Buyer not named, assumed Duveen and the present rug); 299 (reputedly to Kouchakji Frères); (300 Ispahan: N/A); 301 (purchased by Parish-Watson, later donated to the MET by Mrs Byron C Foy, inv, no. 52.136.2); 302 (purchased by J D Rockefeller and believed now in Tehran); 303 (purchased by Duveen, then with Abby Rockefeller and sold Sotheby’s New York, lot 41, 16 December 2005, see below); (304 & 305, both Ispahan: N/A); 306 (purchased Kouchakji Frères).

The cataloguing entry for Lot 298 read as follows:

GOLD- AND SILVER-WOVEN POLONAISE Rug Circa 1600 

Magnificent field of silver, centred with a pendented quatrefoil medallion of lotus blossoms, and supporting in the field, symmetrically placed, pairs of Chinese lotus and peony blossoms linked up by scrolling branches with waving serrated Herati leaves, particolored in sky-blue, dull scarlet and pink. Superb apple-green border of delicately fluctuating tone, bearing a series of lotus blossoms connected by interlacing creepers, enriched with particolored glaive-like leaves. Delicate rosetted guards. 

Length, 6 feet 7 1/2 inches; width, 4 feet 9 inches 

Lot 303 in the same sale was, as noted above, sold at Sotheby’s New York in 2005. Also previously belonging to John D. Rockefeller and thence by descent via Winthrop Rockefeller to the consignor, the catalogued provenance for this piece when sold at Sotheby’s, was as follows:

“King Frederick Augustus III of Saxony

by repute in the Residential Palace from 1720

Duveen Brothers, New York, acquired from the above by 1928

Abby Aldrich Rockefeller (1874-1948), purchased from the above, 2 May 1928 

John D Rockefeller, Jr. (1874-1960), inherited from the estate of his wife, Abby Aldrich Rockefeller, 1948

Winthrop Rockefeller (1912–1973), Governor of Arkansas, inherited from the Estate of John D Rockefeller, Jr., 1960

The Estate of Governor Winthrop Rockefeller (1912-1973), inherited in 1973, and thence by descent to the present owner"

"This rug was exhibited at ‘The Arkansas Arts Center, Little Rock, Anonymous Loan, 1985 - 2005 (EL 3.1985)." 

The auction catalogue note stated "This exceptional carpet was last offered at auction in 1928 in the estate of Judge Elbert H. Gary [...]."

Provenances were provided for only two of the ‘Polonaise’ rugs in the Gary sale (lots 293 and 301) but the description of lot 303, the piece sold at Sotheby’s in 2005, concurs with that mentioned in the list of known ‘Polonaise’ rugs compiled by Friedrich Spuhler in his dissertation (Friedrich Spuhler, Seidene Repräsentationsteppiche der mittleren bis späten Safawidenzeit - Die sog.Polenteppiche, dissertation, Berlin, 1968, (unpublished), as No. 154. Spuhler, op.cit., lists approximately 240 known examples in public and private collections and there are eight pieces in total listed by Spuhler, Nos. 154-161, pp.218-221, as with Mrs John D Rockefeller Jnr., New York. This would have been John D Rockefeller’s second wife, Martha Baird Rockefeller (March 15, 1895 – January 24, 1971), on whose death the rugs were distributed to the heirs, including Winthrop Rockefeller, the fifth child of John D Rockefeller Jnr and his first wife, Abby Aldrich Rockefeller, who had died in 1948.

Spuhler categorised the designs of ‘Polonaise’ rugs into a series of 13 core repeating patterns; the rugs with few exceptions each use a section of one of these designs, which are illustrated in Spuhler’s article ‘Entwurfspraktiken safawidischer Hofmanufakturen am Beispiel der sog. Polenteppiche’, Hali, Autumn, 1978, pp.244-47. Two of the Rockefeller rugs are listed by Sphuler in his dissertation as having come from Gary: Nos. 155 and 161. No. 155 is listed as having Pattern-system XIII, No. 161 as Pattern-system II, but this also has a gold brocaded border. However, their descriptions (none of the rugs are illustrated) do not match with the original cataloguing from the Judge Gary sale catalogue. It is of course quite possible that the provenances were muddled when they were being related to Spuhler: this was after all after the death of John D Rockefeller Jnr. and indeed more than 30 years after many of them were purchased. In any event, it would appear the Gary provenances were transposed in Spuhler’s dissertation, to 155 rather than 154 and to 161 rather than 160. No. 154 is as noted above, the ex Gary sale lot 303, sold by Sotheby’s in 2005, whilst Spuhler’s description of No. 160 closely matches the design of the present rug - translated from the German, it is described as: “Distantly related to the VII pattern array system, spiral tendrils that form gold and silver brocaded fields; in the middle the vertical axis two fork-leaf palms and above each a pair of fork-leaves blended together, in the center also four rosettes and behind four fork-leaves pointing towards the center, in the corners each a quarter of dwarf leaves, and a clinging tendril, border green ground..”. 

With their infill of ‘gold’ and ‘silver’ metal-thread brocading and a colour palette typically now of soft peach tones accented by vivid blues, apple greens and gentle shades of reds, but which would originally have been much brighter, 'Polonaise' rugs stand out as a distinct group among classical Persian pile weavings. The hallmark shimmering silver and gold decoration of ‘Polonaise’ carpets was achieved by wrapping extremely fine silver metal thread diagonally around partially visible silk threads; for a gold effect the metal thread was wrapped around yellow silk and for silver, white silk. As a result of this technique the colors blended harmoniously into solid shades of gold and silver in the eyes of the onlooker; over time the silver has blackened with oxidisation, as is clearly seen in the piece offered here.

The term 'Polonaise' is a misnomer for these Central Persian rugs. In 1878, a number of silk and metal-thread carpets from the collection of Prince Ladislas Czartoryski were exhibited at the Paris International Exhibition. As some of the carpets displayed the Czartoryski coat-of-arms, it was assumed that these rugs were made in Poland. The Polish attribution persisted and these carpets still bear the name 'Polonaise' in spite of the fact that it was later recognized that this group was the product of Persian looms, probably in Kashan or Ispahan. Notably, a large ‘Polonaise’ carpet from the collection of the Czartoryski family, with armorial-style decoration, was donated to the MET by John D Rockefeller Jnr. (Inv. No. 45.106). The manufacture of these rugs and carpets was closely associated with the Persian Royal court and there are several recorded instances of their being presented as gifts to foreign courts by the embassies of Shah Abbas I (1587-1628), Shah Safi (1629-1642) and Shah Abbas II (1642-1674). Shah Abbas, who moved his capital to Isfahan from Qazvin in 1598, was a great supporter of the silk and textile industries and production in Isfahan grew rapidly under his patronage. Two carpets of the ‘Polonaise’ group are known to have been given in royal waqf to the great Shiite shrine of the Imam 'Ali at Najaf. John Fryer, a 17th century traveller in Persia, noted in 1676 that there were special bazaars for rugs in Ispahan, selling pieces ‘both woolen and silk, intermixed with Gold and Silver, very costly, which are the peculiar manufacture of this country (see Dimand, M.S., and Jean Mailey, Oriental Rugs in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 1973, p.59). Other 17th century travellers who commented on silk weaving (textiles and carpets are not always differentiated) in both Kashan and Isfahan, include Pater Florentino de Niño Jesus in 1607-8, Thomas Herbert in 1627-8 and Jean-Baptiste Tavernier in 1676. Sir John Chardin, who travelled in Persia between 1666 and 1672, observed that the workshops were allowed, when not working for the Shah, to undertake work for other clients. ‘Polonaise’ carpets were sought after by the European nobility and courts and many made their way to Europe as purchases as well as ambassadorial gifts. Five examples in the Treasury of Saint Mark’s, Venice (Pope, A.U., Survey of Persian Art, pls. 1244-45), can be linked to ambassadorial gifts of 1603 and 1621 (Spuhler, op.cit., 1968, pp. 102-3). The Polish royalty in particular had a deep fascination for Persian works of art. Records show that in as early as 1584, King Stephen Báthory (r.1576-1586) acquired thirty-four Persian textiles, while in 1601 a group of eight Safavid silk carpets embellished with gold was ordered by Sigismund Vasa III of Poland for his daughter’s wedding, (Axel Langer, The Fascination of Persia, Zurich, 2013, pp.118-123). These appear to have been delivered in 1602, some or all of which then passed by marriage into the Wittelsbach family and are now in the Residenz Museum in Munich.

Of the approximately 240 examples noted by Spuhler in 1968, there are 25 pairs or near-pairs: two of these couples, both in carpet format, were donated by John D Rockefeller to the MET (Inv. Nos. 50.190.1 & 2; 50.193.2 & 4), together with the Czartoryski carpet mentioned earlier and another large carpet originally from Prince Doria, Rome, purchased via Duveen (Inv. No. 50.190.5). Other ‘Polonaise’ rugs in the MET include the two from Mrs Byron Foy, ex. Judge Gary, noted previously, an early donation, the Bequest of Isaac D. Fletcher, (Inv. No. 17.120.143) and the Havemeyer carpet, Inv. No. 56.185.4.

Some examples still remain in old European collections, such as the Duke of Buccleuch, the Marquess of Salisbury and the Princes of Liechtenstein, some have passed to national and private museums in Italy, Germany, Holland, Austria, France, Denmark, Portugal, Russia, Poland and Hungary, to name a few. Several of those which left Europe for the US, particularly in the late 19th and early 20th century when the great tycoons were forming their collections, are now in American museums. Examples can be found not only in the MET but also Boston, Chicago, Detroit, Nelson-Atkins Kansas City, Philadelphia, St. Louis, and the Textile Museum and National Gallery of Art in Washington. The latter holds the ‘Widener Polonaise’ (Inv. No, 1942.9.474), which has a field design related to the present rug. Many of the pieces which have returned to auction in the years since the great collections were dispersed now reside in private collections and in the new museums, such as the QMA in Doha. Woven during the golden age of Safavid art, 'Polonaise' rugs with their silk pile and metal thread decoration epitomize this era to many scholars and collectors today, and they are equally appreciated as they were when first made, and during the heady years of collecting in the late 19th and early 20th century. 

Please note that this is a rug of Iranian Origin, and due to recent changes in the U.S. law, carpets and rugs of Iranian/Persian origin can no longer be imported into the U.S.