Up to the 1930s, chromolithographs of this kind were printed in Germany for various foreign markets. That this may yield more solid information about this particular print of an idealized female beauty with Western features and complexion and pseudo-Turkish costume is suggested by the fact that chromolithographed portraits of exotic beautiful women were featured on packaging and advertisements for cigarettes from the late 19th century to the 1930s, as an overt lure to the male consumer. One of the many exotically named American brands that capitalized on the popularity of Turkish and Egyptian cigarettes was, in fact, also called Fatima.
This brand was first registered with the United States Patent and Trademark Office in February 1898 by Cameron and Cameron, later succeeded by Liggett and Myers, who kept the brand in use until at least the late 1940s. Although the exact same picture of Fatima has not been found on cigarette pack or advertisements, a similar image, also called "Fatima," appears on some Kerman rugs, and is adapted in the tribal and village rugs in plates 136-138 - and with the same name but different features in the cigarette advertisements in plates 131-133. A British brand of a Turkish or Egyptian type of cigarette from about 1900 - called Crayol - features a chromolithograph of a similar lush female portrait which, like the one titled at the edge of the lithograph depicting Fatima (plate 134),44 suggests the turn of the 20th century.
Whatever its specific origins, the image in plate 134 has inspired a group of pictorial carpets made in Kerman and by the villagers and tribal weavers of southeast and northeast Iran. The oldest example, dating to the late 19th century, was made in Kerman (plate 135). This rug, or a similar example, traveled more than a thousand miles through various villages and tribal areas. Plate 136 was made by the Baluch people of Khorasan (in northeast Iran) and plate 137 was made by the Baluch of Zabol (in the southeast). It is admirable how the weaver of this rug incorporated the same format into a larger rug, and filled up the rest with her traditional motifs.
The most interesting one, however, is plate 138, which was made in exactly the same proportions as the model, yet by reversing the model both horizontally and vertically created a medallion. Obviously the weaver was aware of playing cards, and by duplicating her model upside down created not only a perfect medallion but also an oeuvre d'art inspired by a playing card.
Traditional Art and Modern Culture: An Encounter
