A 'TRANSYLVANIAN' PRAYER RUG

Details

A 'TRANSYLVANIAN' PRAYER RUG
WEST ANATOLIA, LATE 17TH CENTURY

The open sand-yellow mihrab beneath a stepped tomato-red saz-leaf filled arch and a sand-yellow cartouche reserve, a
maize-yellow border of polychrome rosettes, stylized saz-leaves and floral branches, inner medium indigo and outer sand-yellow stripes between opposed polychrome triangle and pinwheel motif stripes, areas of repiling and reweaving throughout, one partially rewoven end border, rewoven outer guard borders and selvage, partially oxidized browns
Approximately 5ft. 4in. x 3ft. 11in. (163cm. x 119cm.)

Warp: yellow and ivory wool, Z2S, sometimes red, one strand yellow and one strand with dark brown, light brown and ivory coloured fibres, one strand yellow and another with light brown and yellow fibres
Weft: 2 shoots, ivory wool, Z1, one shoot red, but not completely, the first undulating, the second strongly undulating
Pile: wool, Z2S, knots symmetrical inclined to the left, H3.5 x V3.5/cm.
Remarks: lazy lines

Provenance

Acquired 24 June 1919 as a "Damaskus" for DM3,150, but then re-catalogued 10 October 1922 as an "Anatol"

Literature

Bernheimer, Otto, Alte Teppiche des 16.-18. Jahrhunderts der Firma L. Bernheimer, Munich, 1959, pl.7

Exhibited

Ausstellung Orient-Teppiche, Museum fr Kunst und Gewerbe, Hamburg, 1950, no.52, p.54

Lot Essay

This rug belongs to a type of the so-called 'Transylvanian' rugs that may have been woven in Melas. This attribution, however, is only based on similarities between this type and later rugs known to be from Melas. Other similar examples are known, such as a rug in the Schwarze Kirche Kronstadt, inventory no. 193 (see Kertesz-Badrus, A.: Trkische Teppiche in Siebenbrgen, Bucharest, 1985, fig.84).

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