PROBABLY USHAK, WEST ANATOLIA, 16TH CENTURY

This fragment displays a chain-link variation of the closed kufesque border which is found on Lotto and Small Holbein rugs. Examples of this variation on red ground are found on a Lotto rug in the Iparmuveszeti Muzeum (Museum of Applied Art), Budapest (inv.no. 19924), another Lotto published in Eberhart Herrmann, Von Lotto bis Tekke: Seltene Orientteppiche aus Vier Jahrhunderten, 1978, p.4, no.1) and a small Holbein rug in the Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Islamisches Museum, Berlin (inv.no. 82.894). While the red ground border would almost certainly have accompanied a red field, it incorporates playful highlights of colour in yellow, green, blue and black within the eyes of the kufesque interlace. Other examples with the same variation of border but on blue grounds include one in the Cincinnati Museum of Art, published in HALI, no.64, 1992, p.134.