Antique Silk Kashgar Throne Cover Rug Fragment
This rare antique silk Kashgar throne cover rug fragment belongs to a specific group of twelve silk Kashgar throne covers, all with a similar design and palette and distinguished by extremely fine knotting. Among the group, one is in the Victoria & Albert Museum in London, and two are conserved in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York (see E. Herrmann, Asiatische Teppich und Textilkunst, Munich, vol. 2, plate 73 and vol. 5 plate 107).
The delicate tracery is compounded by various colours representing great age and nobility. It is a true masterpiece of antique Asian woven art. As we often see with items initially sourced in Tibet, they are cut precisely in half. Professionally conserved on a cotton backing and mounted on a wooden stretcher.