EAST CAUCASUS, SECOND HALF 18TH CENTURY

The 'Afshan' design which comprises large flowerheads, split-palmettes, small flowerheads, amulets and other minor motifs, set within a delicate, lozenge lattice, proved to be one of the most successful in eighteenth century Caucasian carpets, (Charles Grant Ellis, Early Caucasian Rugs, Washington D.C., 1976, pp.84-89). Serare Yetkin discusses a group of seventeen carpets bearing this same design, four on a red ground, thirteen on blue, of which sixteen are now in the Türk ve Islam Eserleri Museum, Istanbul, (S. Yetkin, Early Caucasian Carpets in Turkey, London, 1978, Vol.I).

The design could be scaled accordingly and here comprises just two columns of ascending flowerheads but which at times could be up to as many as seven in width, (see Yetkin, op.cit, pl.74). The yellow ground border design on the present rug, with alternating red and indigo flowerheads issuing bracket-like angular stems on each side, is seen on a similar gallery carpet sold in the Hackwood Park collection, Christie's London, 1998, lot 1121. The narrow ivory floral guard stripe and the reciprocal skittle-pattern outer guard stripe were frequently used together in this group of carpets in varying combinations.