Soumak

1940s Persian panels are hand woven and are joined together by hand.
 

1940s Persian Panels are hand woven and are joined together by hand.

An open tan field is organized by an angular, branching lattice resembling a tree diagram, its dark stems sprouting small red, white, and green flowers along the way. Scattered within the branches are pictorial vignettes - a bird perched on a twig, a house with a fence, a pair of pine trees beside a running fox, a bundled sack hanging from a rod, and a small radiant sunburst near the bottom - all rendered in the same red, cream, and charcoal palette. A plain sage-green border frames the composition on all sides.

An allover lattice of interlocking palmettes and scrolling vinework fills the field in rust, ochre, and soft ivory, with touches of pale blue and olive picking out the connecting stems. The composition shifts subtly in tone from a golden upper field to a deeper rust lower field, suggesting abrash across the ground. A wide indigo border carries a repeating rosette-and-leaf design framed by narrower ivory and floral guard stripes on both sides.

The rectangular field, a soft rose-terracotta ground, carries a dense scatter of stylized palmettes, leafy sprays, and small blossoms rendered in ivory, olive, muted blue, and dusty rose, with a pair of tiny hooked motifs set near the field's center like a small woven cartouche. A wide indigo border framed by narrower ivory guard stripes repeats the same floral vocabulary in miniature, while a diagonal striped band runs along the outer edge.

An ivory ground carries an all-over scatter of small palmettes, vinery, and floral sprays in rust, blue, and soft green, centered on a lobed steel-blue medallion filled with a rosette pattern. Rust-toned spandrels occupy the four corners, echoing the medallion's palette, while a broad indigo border of repeating angular blossoms is flanked by narrower guard stripes in cream and rose.

A field of layered blue tones is overlaid with an angular lattice enclosing repeating crenellated palmette forms in soft rust and camel. The wide rust-red border carries a chain of rosettes and stepped geometric medallions alternating with small blue accents, framed by narrow guard stripes of blue and ivory. Wear and abrasion are visible across the field, with the lattice more distinct in the upper and lower registers than at center.

A soft slate-green ground is overlaid with an interlacing lattice of pale gold vines that form pointed arches, each enclosing a large six-petaled blossom in coral-red with a cream-and-red center. Smaller cream roses, orange florets, and scattered leaves and rosebuds fill the interstices, all rendered in the same yellow-green, coral, and cream palette. A narrow guard stripe of small alternating florets separates the field from a wider border of matching red and gold blossoms connected by a continuous leafy vine, with the same corallate flower repeated in each corner.

A central medallion of an eight-pointed star sits within a beaded oval, encircled by a dense wreath of ivory and gold roses and blossoms rendered against a teal-blue ground. The surrounding field shifts through lattice and lozenge lattice bands in deeper blue before giving way to a broad golden-tan border of scrolling acanthus and corner fan motifs, framed by a narrow outer band of small hexagonal medallions. Corner spandrels in pale blue with quartered lozenges echo the medallion's palette, tying the composition together.