Manhattan - Chinese and East Asian Rugs

Chinese - Art Deco. Measures: 9'0" x 11'8".

Antique Chinese - Ningxia rug, size: 6' 8'' x7' 4''.

Antique Chinese - Art Deco rugs, size: 11' 0'' x 14' 0''.

1920s Chinese Art Debackground measuring 9' x 11'9" Green background with yellow border.

A vintage Chinese Peking throw rug handmade during the mid-20th century with a cream border and light blue field. Measures: 2' 6" x 4' 3" The craft of the hand-knotted carpet in China, and the surrounding areas including Mongolia and Tibet, extends into the early centuries of the first millennium, C.E., but we really have a firm grasp only beginning in the later 16th century with large, very coarsely woven carpets, often depicting dragons, created for the Imperial Forbidden City palaces. Chinese carpets have always been commercial and there are no tribal groups responsible for any of the carpet weaving strains. When the Ming Dynasty fell in 1644, with no Imperial patrons, production moved to the city of Ningxia in north central China where several workshops turned out more finely woven pieces for the Mandarins of the administrative Ch’ing bureaucracy and well-to-do merchants. Ningxia was the major Chinese carpet center up through most of the 19th century, with first allover and then medallion designs on cotton foundations in medium weaves. Palettes were initially limited to yellows, dark blue and cream, but later widened to include reds, browns and even green. These antiques were the first Chinese carpets to be exported to the West and they fitted in well with the craze for Chinese blue-and-white porcelain in the second half of the 19th century. Ningxia also wove shaped and rectangular small rugs for saddle underlays, chair (“throne”) seats and shaped backs, pillar carpets with dragons or monks for Buddhist monasteries, and long divided runners for monastery meditation halls. These small rugs are among the most collectible of all Chinese weavings. Weavers from Ningxia set up workshops in the capital Peking (Beijing) in the 1860’s and began weaving Western room sizes for export, primarily to America. In blue – and – white and polychrome palettes, with round wreath medallions, precious objects, seasonal flowers, paeonies, lotuses, fretwork, clouds, butterflies and bats, all relatively spaciously drawn. The round “Shou” (Good Luck) character is also a prominent decorative motif. There are also a few Peking landscape pictorials with pagodas, houses, bridges, waterscapes and boats. Peking carpets were woven right up until WWII and production began again after the Cultural Revolution around 1970. They are moderately well-woven, on cotton foundations, exactingly executed and indisputably Chinese. Many are in the blue-and-white style. Nothing else looks like a Peking carpet and for a Chinese “look” in a room, they are absolutely indispensable. Sizes range from scatters and a few runners, through the popular 9’12’ size, to large carpets over 20’ which must have been special orders. The earliest Peking Revival carpets are pliable and fairly thin, but they became heavier and more compact in the 20th century, in competition with Art Deco carpets from Tientsin. The modern, post- 1970, pieces are in the traditional Peking style, but are a little too regular and neat. Exactitude has been favored over character, as hard to explain that as it is. There are a number of all-silk and silk-and –metal thread pieces, many with inscriptions purporting to link them with rooms in the Imperial palaces, bringing very substantial auction prices, but none are really antique. The genre emerged after WWI and the present demand comes from mainland Chinese. The silk piles often stand in pattern relief against flat woven gold metal thread grounds. The inscriptions are apocryphal, the rugs are flashily opulent, perfect for nouveaux riches. The Art Deco period between the two World Wars saw a distinctive carpet industry developing in Tientsin (Tianjin) in northeastern China. These are highly prized for their transitional design character, neither overtly Chinese, nor abstractly modern/contemporary. Woven exclusively for export, usually by and for American firms, such as Nichols and Elbrook, they are totally in the “Jazz Age Modern” style of the 1920’s, often without borders, with abstract or abstracted patterns, and only with, at best, a few Chinese-y pattern elements. Vases asymmetrically placed in the corners are features of some of the more Chinese-y carpets. Open fields with floral sprays and branches growing in from the edges are anther design innovation. Often, Chinese motives have been re-imagined in more sharp-edged, abstract manners. Some have no references whatsoever to natural elements. The patterns are sharp and the rugs are never subdued, soft or restrained. The rugs are heavily constructed, with crisp, unfading dyes and medium to medium coarse weaves on cotton foundations. All are extremely well-executed, with none of the vagaries, variations or twists found on even high-quality Persian rugs. The majority are in the 9’ by 12’ format and a surprising number can be found in top condition. There also was a substantial production in Peking from, especially from the Fette factory. Elliptical and round carpets, and lighter, often pastel colors, were a specialty. Nothing looks like an Art Deco Chinese and they work well with traditional Chinese furniture and the most modern decor as well. These is no substitute for a good Chinese Art Deco carpet. Chinese carpets also include small scatters from Tibet, with high quality wool, floating dragons and allover textile patterns. The colors of vintage and modern pieces are bright, but there are antique small rugs...

A terrestrial/aquatic dragon rises from stylized waves while a celestial dragon descends from fungus whorl clouds with two flaming pearls in the plain areas of this black on black Ar...

A vintage Chinese pictorial Art Deco room size carpet handmade during the mid-20th century. Measures: 8' 11" x 11' 1"

Early 20th Century W. Chinese Ningxia Rug 2'x2' 2"

Early 20th Century Chinese Peking Carpet ( 9' x 11'7'' - 275 x 353 )

1920s Chinese Art Deco Rug ( 3'2'' X 4' - 96 X 146 )

1920s Chinese Art Deco Rug ( 4' x 6'6'' - 122 x 198 )

A vintage Chinese Art Deco accent rug handmade during the mid-20th century. Measures: 4' 3" x 6' 11".

Antique Chinese - Art Deco rug, size: 7'9" x 11'0".

Antique Chinese Peking rug, Size: 8' 0'' x 9' 8''.

1920s Chinese Art Deco Carpet ( 9' x 11' 6" - 275 x 350 cm )

19th Century Chinese Peking Carpet 10' 8" x 13' 6"

18th Century W. Chinese Ningxia Carpet ( 11'3" x 12'4" - 343 x 376 )

Early 19th Century W. Chinese Ningxia Carpet 5'4" x 9'8" - 163 x 295

Early 20th Century Chinese Silk Carpet 5'2" x 8' - 158 x 244

Mostly paeonies, in the suspended cloisonné urn, in two poly-chrome corners, along with an edging of other seasonal flowers along one end of this brisk rose Art Deco border-less carp...

19th Century Chinese Peking Dragon Carpet ( 11'10" x 12'6" - 360 x 380 )

Mid-19th Century W. Chinese Ningxia Carpet 16' 6" ( 503 cm ) x 18' ( 549 cm ) A fierce lion dog confronts a flaming pearl in the centre of this ivory ground large antique Ningxia ca...

Antique Chinese, Ningxia rug, size: 10'4" x 15'6".

Late 19th Century W. Chinese Ningxia Rug ( 4'6" x 6'6" - 137 x 198 )

1920s Chinese Art Deco Carpet, Size: 8'x9' 6"

1920s Chinese Art Deco Carpet ( 5'7" x 8'4" - 170 x 244 )

Antique Chinese Peking rug, size: 6'2" x 9'2".

Mid-18th W. Chinese Ningxia Carpet Main Hall Carpet 11’9” x 12’ Mid 18th Century Structural Analysis: Warp:cotton,off-white,natural,Z-4-S,somewhat irregular; Weft:cotton,off-white,Z-4-S,winder plied, quite irregular;2 shots alternating; wefts thick and soft; Pile:wool,Z-4; Knot: PL/0 degrees warp depression/horiz. 6 x vertical 5 = 30 knots per square inch; knots somewhat irregular, some quite thin; [check for T knots along edges] Sides: two cords each of two body warps, inner directly weft-attached; figure eight sparsely weft yarn wrapped; Weft/knot ratio: 60/40 wefts predominant. Remarks: This is another variant on the popular Mandarin nine lion dog carpet...

Antique Chinese - Art Deco rug. Measures: 8'6" x 11'6".

Late 18th Century Chinese Ningxia Carpet ( 13'6" x 16'6" - 412 x 503 )

Early 20th Century Chinese Peking Carpet

1920s Chinese Art Deco Carpet ( 7'2" x 9'10" - 208 x 300 )

1920s Chinese Art Deco Carpet 10' x 15'5"

1920s Chinese Art Deco Carpet ( 8' x 9'6" - 245 x 290

A modern East Turkestan Khotan room size carpet handmade during the 21st century. Measures: 8' 2" x 10' 0".

Antique Floral Chinese Peking Neutral Tone Rug, Country of Origin: China, Circa Date: 1900

Antique Chinese, Peking rug. Measures: 10'3" x 13'0".

An antique East Turkestan Khotan rug from the early 20th century. Measures: 5' 4" x 8' 10"

Early 20th Century Chinese Peking Carpet ( 10 3" x 12'9" - 312 x 389 ) Antique Early 20th Century Chinese Peking Carpet, 10'3" × 12'9" This exquisite early 20th century Chinese Peki...

Antique Chinese, Art Deco rug. Size: 6'2" x 8'10".

Early 20th Century Chinese Peking Dragon Carpet 4'2'' x 6'9'' - 127 x 206

Antique Chinese Art Deco Rug, Size: 9'0" x11'4"

19th Century N. Chinese Mongolian Carpet. 7' x 9'6 - 213 x 290

1930s Chinese Art Deco Carpet ( 8'10" x 11'7" - 270 x 353 )

Late 19th Century Chinese Peking Dragon Carpet ( 8' x 12' - 245 x 365 )

Early 19th Century Chinese Ningxia Carpet on Camel Background 7'9" x 12'6" - 236 x 381

Early Century 19th W. Chinese Ningxia Carpet 2'9" x 5'6" - 84 x 168

Antique Chinese Peking rug, size: 8' 0'' x 10' 9''.

Early 20th Century Chinese Peking Carpet 9' 3" x 12'

Mid-19th Century W. Chinese Ningxia Carpet ( 6'9" x 9'6" - 205 x 290 )

Antique Chinese Art Deco rug with burgundy color and 10'0" x 14'8" size.

Scholars’ rock, porcelain vases, brushpots, books, birds, butterflies, lotus blossoms, swords. Cloud bands, fungus clouds, and more are pulled out to decorate the dark blue field and...

Early 20th Century Chinese Tibetan Saddle Cover ( 2'6" x 4'2" - 76 x 127 )

1930s Chinese Art Deco Carpet ( 8'10" x 11'8" - 270 x 358 )

1920s Chinese Art Deco Carpet ( 9' x 11'3" - 274 x 343 )

1920s Chinese Art Deco Carpet ( 9' x 11' 6" - 275 x 350 cm)

1920s Chinese Silk Dragon Carpet ( 4' x 6' - 122 x 183 )

Ningxia Carpet North Central China 10’2” x 14’6” Circa Early 1800s Warp: cotton, handspun Weft: cotton, handspun, 2 shoots alternating Pile: wool, handspun, naturally dyed This larg...

1930s Chinese Art Deco Carpet ( 8' x 10'2" - 245 x 310 )

Early 20th Century Chinese Silk Dragon Carpet ( 6'3" x 9'3" - 191 x 282 )