Vintage Chinese Carpet BB3148 11'5" × 14'2" $12,000

A late 19th century Chinese antique rug, the blue field with an allover blue fretwork pattern punctuated by bold abstract vinery spandrels in ivory within a blue key-pattern border.

These tend to be more open and spacious than the Oriental carpets from the Western Asia. Maintained mostly in blues, golds, ivories and beiges, with classical symbols of longevity, elaborate lotus blossoms, chrysanthemums, cloud-band motifs, foo-dogs and birds, antique Chinese rugs are frequently visible in paintings from as early as the T’ang Period. In contrast to earlier Chinese antique rugs, the twentieth-century Chinese Art Deco rugs can be quite spare in design and quite radical in color, catering to the western taste shaped by the birth of the modernist movement. They often comprised of geometric or abstract patterns. The most recognizable vintage rugs from the 1920’s and 1930 were made by Walter Nichols – the American who manufactured deco carpets in Tientsin.