POSSIBLY EASTERN ANATOLIA OR THE CAUCASUS, 18TH CENTURY

The squat medallion with its hooked profile and the field design of this fragment is closely related to rug in a Hamburg private collection (see Ulrich Schürmann, Teppiche aus dem Orient, Wiesbaden, 1981, pp.180-1) as well as on a fragment and a complete carpet in the Türk ve Islam Eserleri Museum, Istanbul, found in the Hagia Sophia (see Serare Yetkin, Early Caucasian Carpets in Turkey, London, 1978, pl.101 and 102). It also relates to a fragmentary rug formerly in the Bernheimer collection (Christie's London, 14 February 1996, lot 37). Schürmann classifies the Hamburg piece as Armenian, 18th century and Yetkin lists the TIEM pieces as medallion carpets, 19th century. The Bernheimer example was catalogued as Anatolian, 18th century. The similarity in design and drawing of these pieces could suggest that they are from the same looms or at least from the same region and tradition. Another rug with a similar white-ground medallion on a different field was included in the fiftieth anniversary exhibition of the Hajji Baba Club (see Daniel Walker, "Oriental Rugs of the Hajji Babas, Exhibition Review," HALI, vol.4, no.4, 1982, p.392, fig.5 and front cover). The Hajji Baba rug is attributed to the Erzurum region of north east Anatolia, late 18th or 19th century. The present fragment is particularly close in drawing to the fragment in the Türk ve Islam (op. cit, pl.101) both in the squat, stepped form of the central ivory hooked medallion and in the narrow ivory border which we can partially see in the present lot but even less in the TIEM example. Of note are the serrated palmettes and jagged drawing of the angular motifs which share a design affinity with 18th century Caucasian embroideries and 'Dragon' carpets.