Hans König: one of the great classical Chinese carpet collectors of our time

Known for his intellectual curiosity and passion for the arts, Hans König, together with his wife Marion, assembled a remarkable collection of fine and decorative arts, including Old Master paintings, Islamic and Asian works of art, Oriental carpets and 20th-century European art and sculpture. Each room in their home contained works spanning periods and styles, thoughtfully placed and juxtaposed, creating a wonderfully eclectic and curated interior. An ancient Greek sculpture, for instance, might be displayed alongside an early 20th-century painting or a beautifully spotlit carpet fragment.

The Hans König Collection of Classical Chinese Carpets will be offered for sale in Art of the Islamic and Indian Worlds including Rugs and Carpets on 1 May at Christie’s in London. This extremely rare group spans 200 years, from the late 16th century, during the reign of the Ming dynasty, to the late 18th century, under the great Qing emperors, and includes some of the rarest examples from the period in existence. Many of the carpets offered are attributed to the weaving centre of Ningxia in western China.

‘It is one of the most significant collections of its type remaining in private hands,’ says Louise Broadhurst, international head of Rugs & Carpets at Christie’s in London. ‘The sale is a unique opportunity for collectors to appreciate the range and beauty of classical Chinese pile weavings and acquire rare examples with fantastic provenance.’

Oriental carpets, notably classical examples from China and Turkestan, were of particular interest to König and the core focus of his collecting. After his initial chance purchase at auction, he was introduced to the field by the German dealer Ulrich Schürmann. Over time, his buying, knowledge and understanding of Oriental carpets increased, as did his number of acquaintances in the field: he counted the renowned textiles scholars and dealers Thomas Farnham, Jon Thompson and Michael Franses, all of whom greatly contributed to his understanding of carpets, as good friends.

In the 1990s, following a successful career in the civil service where he had been secretary general of the International Chamber of Commerce in Cologne, König served as the first president of TEFAF Maastricht. While there, his personal intervention and charm made possible a groundbreaking loan exhibition of art from Russia in 1994: Treasures from The Hermitage, St Petersburg.

‘Hans was a gentleman and a scholar who had a wonderful eye for quality and beauty,’ says Broadhurst. ‘He had a great passion and enthusiasm for the world of Oriental carpets, a field for which he was a wonderful advocate for many decades.’

In addition to collecting the carpets of China and Turkestan, König delivered keynote lectures on the subject and published widely for more than half a century, with influential articles appearing in HALI magazine. Together with Michael Franses, he co-authored Glanz der Himmelssöhne: Kaiserliche Teppiche aus China 1400-1750, a volume which developed out of the landmark exhibition of the same name he helped curate at the Museum of East Asian Art in Cologne in 2005. The first exhibition of Chinese carpets in Europe since the opening of the Musée Cernuschi in Paris in 1898, it initiated a technical discussion on the genre, which until that point had never been achieved. ‘Many of the examples offered in this auction were displayed and published in that groundbreaking exhibition,’ says Broadhurst.

One such example is the Imperial Ming ‘Qi’ Dragon Palace carpet dating from the Wanli period (c. 1575-1600), which was likely produced by an imperial workshop in Beijing. The design comprises an entwined pattern of scrolling vines, from which emerge large powder-blue, ivory and mid-blue peony flowers and stylised cloud wisps, and five writhing ‘Qi’ (or juvenile) dragons, with phoenix-like beaks, two small hooked horns and almond-shaped eyes. The original imperial-red ground, which was coloured with a fugitive dye taken from the safflower, has faded to a pale yellow. The blue dyes, however, haven’t faded at all, creating a striking visual contrast.

The carpet was made for one of the halls of the Forbidden Palace in Beijing and was woven to fit around a specific piece of palace furniture, such as a throne. (At some point in the early 20th century, a new rectangular section was woven to fill the original indentation in the lower right-hand quarter.) Carpets such as this, however, were not solely decorative. Woven with a very thick pile, they covered the floors, walls and pillars to keep the ruling elite warm during the bitter winter months.

Ming Palace carpets have long been admired by collectors, but most prized of all are those with a dragon motif. The auspicious dragon, considered a sacred symbol of good luck, power and wealth, has been linked with the image of the Chinese emperor as far back as 2597 B.C., when the Yellow Emperor, Huangdi, was said to have transformed into a dragon as he ascended into paradise.

Of the 16 complete surviving Ming Dragon carpets known today, nine of which remain in the Beijing Palace Museum, this is the only known example to depict the ancient ‘Qi’ dragon, which symbolises the life force believed to permeate all living things in nature and the universe.

‘This historically important carpet reflects the wealth, power and cultural values of the Ming dynasty. The Forbidden City was the heart of the Chinese imperial court, a place where luxury and art merged, as seen in this impressive carpet,’ says Broadhurst.

In addition to dragons, other recurrent motifs in the collection include bats, butterflies, clouds, peonies and lotus flowers, as well as complex fretwork and geometric patterns. During the 16th and 17th centuries in China, notes Broadhurst, there was a tradition of using auspicious symbols to decorate architectural elements and works of art such as ceramics, jade, bronzes and carpets.

Dating from the mid-17th century, the ‘Lotus and Peony’ rug is one such brilliant example. Reportedly from the Imperial Palace in Beijing, it features an entwined lotus and peony flowering vine, symbolic of peace, prosperity and good fortune, against a deep blue ground, set within two borders of geometric design. Lotus and peony flowers decorated porcelain of the period, too. ‘The mirroring effect of the designs used throughout the palace interiors would have been extremely visually striking,’ says Broadhurst.

Carpets woven under the reign of the Kangxi emperor (1662-1722) are widely celebrated today for their harmony and proportion, both in colour and size. The well-balanced design of the ‘Foliate Dragon and Bat’ daybed cover is a case in point.

‘It exemplifies the clarity of line and elegant drawings that are synonymous with carpets from the Kangxi period,’ says Broadhurst. ‘The auspicious symbol of the bat, which signifies longevity, is paired with the naturalistic form of the leaf-dragon, and together they are beautifully balanced within the open oatmeal field.’ Based on its proportions and symbolic motifs, this carpet was likely made as a daybed cover for an important guest. The fact that it was not much walked upon may have helped preserve its condition.

The Ningxia daybed cover (c. 1700), which shows staggered rows of stylised ivory clouds set against an indigo field, is also typical of Kangxi design. The cloud motif, symbolic of celestial mobility, is used effectively, through colour and tone, to create multiple layers without compromising the sense of balance and space. The golden yellow border, once a saturated red, is filled with a meandering stem of peonies set between an inner fret pattern. ‘The design feels remarkably contemporary in its simplicity,’ says Broadhurst.

The collection also includes important carpet fragments, among them one of the 17 known small-format fragments from the largest known Ming Palace carpet outside China: the Tiffany Palace Carpet, which sold for $1,710,000 at Christie’s in New York in 2020. Once owned by Louis Comfort Tiffany and A. Jerrold Perenchio, it is one of only three known floral ‘transitional’ carpets from the late Ming period that link the imperial Wanli carpets with those made during the reign of the Kangxi emperor. Over the course of time, the width of the Tiffany carpet, which originally measured 9.68 metres, was reduced to 7.2 metres for display purposes.

The fragment from that carpet offered in the auction features two columns of three lotus blossoms set against a golden yellow ground, which would originally have been red. ‘It’s a rare opportunity for collectors to acquire a fragment from one of the finest Chinese carpets ever made,’ says Broadhurst.

Also noteworthy is the ‘Lotus and Leaf’ Ming Palace carpet fragment dating from the last quarter of the 16th century, which comes from the same rare, early Chinese group as the Imperial Dragon carpet in this collection. The scale of the tendrils, bold peony flower heads and hooked leaves suggests that the original complete carpet would have been very large in size. It has a full, thick pile throughout and is overall in very good condition.

‘Smaller than many of the pieces in the collection, this fragment had a prominent place within the König family home,’ says Broadhurst. ‘Displayed on a white wall at the end of a long hallway, the striking effect of bold colour and confident line rivalled that of any contemporary artwork.’

Celebrating an extensive range of artistic traditions, Art of the Islamic and Indian Worlds including Rugs and Carpets, on 1 May 2025 at Christie’s in London, features a curated selection of beautiful and rare paintings, manuscripts, objects and carpets from across Asia