EAST CAUCASUS, MID 19TH CENTURY

Woven with a particularly attractive colour palette, the archaic design of three linked eight-pointed medallions, enclosed by a multitude of small motifs including birds, animals, riders, flowers and amulets, appears on many piled rugs of the southern Caucasus including Karabagh. The 'star' medallion soumacs, much like the 'octagonal' medallions, can both be traced back to the so-called 'Large Pattern Holbein' carpets of the 15th century. Comparable soumacs with three and four medallion designs are published by Alberto Boralevi, Sumakh: Flat-woven Carpets of the Caucasus, 1986, pls.10 & 11; Taher Sabahi, Sumakh. Weft Wrapped Flat weaves, 1992, pls.17, 20, 21 and 22; Landreau & Pickering, From the Bosphorus to Samarkand, 1969, pl.18 (McCoy Jones collection); Ian Bennett, Oriental Rugs Volume 1/Caucasian, 1981, pls.473, 474; James D. Burns, The Caucasus/ Traditions in Weaving, 1987, no.56.