Pillar Rug
When installed, the dragon on the rug would have coiled around a pillar in a Chinese-Tibetan Buddhist temple. Framed by the island and sea on the bottom and the jeweled pendant on top, the dragon winds upward as if linking the prayers from earth to heaven. These images, woven in a blue, yellow, and beige color scheme, indicate that the rug was created at the confluence of many cultures, including Chinese, Tibetan, and Central Asian. The colors fading from the lower section tell of the rug’s sustained usage in the temple.
With an unknown vendor, Liulichang market district, Peking (modern-day Beijing), 1933 [1];
Purchased from the unknown vendor, through Laurence Sickman, by The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, 1933.
NOTES:
[1] Liulichang is a street in Beijing known for its antique and curio shops. In a letter to H. J. Fei, Peking Craft Shop, July 7, 1933, Laurence Sickman indicated he bought this object on Liulichang. Nelson-Atkins Archives, Sickman Miscellaneous, box 3, Shipping 1932-34.
