WEST ANATOLIA, SECOND HALF 16TH CENTURY

While the 'star' Ushak is one of the best known icons, and is to be found in a number of surviving examples, it is not one of the most frequently encountered examples in European paintings. There are however some depictions which date back to the sixteenth century, the earliest of which is the very well-known Paris Bordone painting of 1530, The Doge's Ring in the Accademia, Venice (G. Canova, Paris Bordon, Venice, 1963, pl.37 and dust jacket). While King Henry VIII of England is shown in paintings on a number of Ushak carpets, including a variant on the present design, he is not shown with a 'Star' Ushak proper. As with the large 'medallion' carpets, there are also a number of variants on the design, of which the present field design is the most common. The best and earliest examples of the group have borders which often differ from each other. The present example is unusual, although not unique, in its blue border. A 'star' Ushak rug with narrower field proportions but an identical border is in the Museum Rietberg, Zurich, (Fritz Hermann, Teppiche aus dem orient in der Sammlung des Rietbergmuseums', Zurich, 1986, pp.30-31, pl.23.

The drawing and proportions of the 'star' medallions of the present carpet are very similar to those of that in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, formerly in the McMullan Collection (J. V. McMullan, Islamic Carpets, New York, 1965, pl.67, pp.230-231). Like that example, there is a variety and lack of symmetry in the drawing of the motifs in the field and in the designs of the centres of the eight-lobed star medallions. The interplay of colour between the light blue and fir-green outlining of the medallions is highly effective as are the small additions of light green within the tracery palmette vine which is beautifully articulated and well spaced. A comparable carpet to both the present carpet and the McMullan example, but which is missing its end borders, was formerly part of the Christopher Alexander collection, (C. Alexander, A Foreshadowing of 21st Century Art, the Color and Geometry of Very Early Turkish Carpets, New York and Oxford, 1993, pp. 71 (b/w detail) and 266-7) and which sold in these Rooms, 8 April, 1998 lot 103.