OUT OF THE EAST.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVI, Issue 229, 27 September 1935, Page 14

OUT OF THE EAST.

CARPET TREASURES. SULTAN'S PRAYER MAT. ARTISTRY AND RELIGION. Over three hundred years ago a Muslim, weaver sat before his primitive frame, took his silken threads, his shuttles and his comb, and in the light of an artistic soul conceived a masterpiece. Ho wove into it beauty in design and colour, gave it voice in an emblematic philosophy and set it, after years of patient labour, before the knees of his sultan, a praying mat that was in itself a prayer. To-day that mat rests on tho sixth floor of Hart's Building in High Street, a feature in the loan exhibition of antiques, a silken carpet that has few equals in the world. Its history, like that of all antiques, is wide and involves not only the lives of men but tho history of nations. Made in tho district of Ghiordcs, Asia Minor, about 1650, it came from an offshoot of tho royal family of Hyderabad, Deccan, to be tho praying mat of the Sultan Beharam Markali. With him it was carried from Teheran, capital of Persia, when the Moguls swept across India and thus —in tho usual way it was stolen and found its way through collection' channels to a dealer's shop in Bombay. Story of Purchase. There it was seen and coveted by Captain G. Humphrey-Davies, but the writing on three occasions of a cheque for £250 failed to move the dealer from his determination not to sell. It was his mastorpiecc and collectors from all over the world coming to worship (but unable to buy) solaced themselves with his other wires. Another major historical event, the collapse of finances following the Great War, brought it into Captain Davies' hands for the sum that previously had been refused. There are very few of its type known and at a salo in London two years ago similar one 3 brought thousands of guineas. It is valuable not only for its antiquity but for its beauty in design and colour—colours, perhaps one should say, for it changes with each variation of light. Nine borders hold a wealth of interest for the knowledgeable collector and the structure of the mihrab —the centre piece, the apex of which the Muslim owner turns five times a day towards tho burial place of the Prophet at Medina—has not only two conventionalised trees of life but a representation of a temple lamp. Religious Beliefs. Perfection has been achieved in imperfection. No Mohammedan workman may create anything which could be labelled "perfect"—and thus presume to be as great as Allah. So deliberate, imperfections have been introduced in the form of white specks of cotton amidst the glowing silk—an imperfection that is copied in present-day European designs. The religion of the maker—Sunni, or Shiali Mohammedan— can also be seen in the design. The first is the more liberal type and their designs have greater scope than those of the Shiali, whose emblems are strictly geometrical and may not represent anything living.

These two types can be seen in contrast in the exhibits of Captain Davies and Mr. T. N. Holmden. Those of Captain Davies are of Sunn! characteristic, gay with life in idea and form; those of Mr. Holmden of strict geometrical outline. Yet each has equal beauty in line and colour, Mr. Holmden, who spent many years in India, acquired his in that country, hut they hail from Shirwan in Persia, the product of nomadic tribes. One is an eating mat upon which food was once set as upon a table, and it is of unusual design. Each thus carries the trade mark of its maker, plain to the eyes of the student of this form of art.

The silken mat !s a specimen of the most perfect type of carpet—but through the history of the world the carpet has represented a growth of culture. It can be traced back to caveman days when the charcoal that made the first drawings on stone walls was tried out on skins that first decorated walls and then were used as floor coverings. More lasting dyes were discovered and in the East carpets came into woven being. England's Contribution. To Cardinal Wolsey belongs the distinction of introducing carpets to England as floor coverings. In his day even the floors of the Royal castles of England were covered with rushes, on which all types of filth and rubbish were thrown, so that thyme and other herbs had to be laid about to kill the offensive odours. In this connection it is interesting to note that one of the tests of genuine Tudor furniture is that the bottoms of the legs must be rotted from standing among the rushes. And it is interesting, too, that literature contains references to the English becoming "soft," because of the introduction of the carpet! England contributed greatly to the history of woollen carpets and now a great deal of New Zealand crutchings of 40-44's goes into the making of the famous Axminster. England first achieved fame for wool in the time of Henry VIII. and so great was the export of wool to the Continent, that there was the first known instance of controlled trade in the regulation of the quantity allowed to be sold overseas.

There is a thought for the Briton, however, in that when the forefathers of our race still took their ease amongst smelly rushes a wise man of the East was spreading his prayer mat and turning his thoughts, in an atmosphere of beauty, towards the Elysian fields' of Allah. Even when the Persian carpet had been well established in England it was used not as it was intended, but as a form of tapestry to decorate the walls. The earliest European carpets were made in Vienna (probably by Caucasian weavers) and the craft spriead through Hungary and Spain. That was in the Renaissance period of history and one of the characteristics of these rugs was the gold thread that was woven amongst the wool. Through all the years no weaver has touched in artistry the work o? that Persian craftsman. It is a masterpiece —a delight and an instruction. Our complicated machinery can give us only imitations.