PROBABLY BERGAMA DISTRICT, 18TH CENTURY

The design of this rug is based on that of a sixteenth century variant of the star Ushak carpet, an example of which is in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (McMullan, Joseph V.: Islamic Carpets, New York, 1965, no.68, pp.232-3). Another rug in the Metropolitan Museum of Art dated to the late seventeenth century shows the same centralised effect as seen here, but with a ragged palmette border. There is also a group of rugs dateable to the eighteenth century, also normally attributed to Bergama, of similar design to this rug, but not as tightly drawn (see for example one from Davide Halevim, Christies, 14 February 2001, lot 24).