SOUTH CAUCASUS, EARLY 19TH CENTURY

The strong horned medallions and dynamic diagonals of Lenkoran rugs ultimately derive from the Caucasian Dragon carpets that were woven from the late 16th to the 18th century, such as lot 39 in the present sale. The present lot is a particularly archaic form of the design and belongs to a group of early Lenkoran rugs dated to the late 18th or early 19th century. They are all woven with the same wonderfully soft and lustrous wool as our rug, with very similar colouring, field designs and bold red and white trefoil borders. Of the group, the most closely related rug to the present lot is the two medallion rug, with a more heavily ornamented field, published in Martin Volkmann, Alte Orientteppiche, Munich 1985, pl.68, pp.168-169. Other related three medallion examples are illustrated in Eberhart Herrmann, Seltene Orientteppiche X, Munich 1988, pp. 74-75; Ulrich Schürmann, Caucasian Rugs, Cologne 1964, pl.57, pp.174-75 and James D. Burns, The Caucasus, Traditions in Weaving, Seattle 1987, p.13. Of all of these examples, our rug is the only one to possess the striking panel of mirrored hooked motifs at one end.