Lot Essay
This remarkable and apparently unique carpet extends the normal small medallion Ushak form into a larger and particularly longer format. It relates closely to a small group of double-niche Ushak rugs, a good example of which was sold in these Rooms 17 October 1996, lot 411. The present carpet shares with that one the playful choice of colours used in the main blue cloudband border, although the present rug takes this feature one stage further, choosing different colours for the centre and wings of each motif.
The normal layout as shown in the rug mentioned above has been extended by the creation of a large quatrefoil medallion of identical composition to that of the spandrels found on the smaller rugs of this type. On most of the group the small central medallion is normally either of palmette quatrefoil type as in the Christie's 1996 rug or of cusped hexagonal form. It is medallions of this latter form which are used as the pendants to the main medallion of this carpet.
A related rug in the Keir Collection seems to have gone part of the way towards their extension seen in the present rug (Spuhler, Friedrich: Islamic Carpets and Textiles in the Keir Collection, London, 1978, no.24, pp.52 and 54). It is larger than the others in the group, although not as big as the present example, extending the field above and below the medallion with stylised pendant lamps, thus indicating the tripartite medallion structure which was fully developed in the present carpet.
One feature seen in the present carpet which is very unusual for Ushak rugs, at least within the types which were exported to the West such as this, is the positioning of the whole composition of the main field slightly in from the border. As if the designer was uncomfortable with this, a narrow white line has been incorporated delineating an inner field, a line which comes slightly too close for comfort to the central medallion. This is a feature, with or without the delineating line, which can be seen on a number of early carpets of types which have survived in mosques within Turkey (Oler, N. (intro. by): Turkish Carpets from the 13th-18th centuries, Istanbul, 1996, pls.30 and 93).
In her discussion of this piece noted above, Christine Klose draws attention to a 16th-17th century village carpet whose composition appears to derive from that of the present carpet, with its two smaller hexagonal medallions being used as pendants of the larger central medallion (Spuhler, Friedrich: Oriental Carpets in the Museum of Islamic Art, Berlin, London, 1988, no.23, col.pl.p.166).
The normal layout as shown in the rug mentioned above has been extended by the creation of a large quatrefoil medallion of identical composition to that of the spandrels found on the smaller rugs of this type. On most of the group the small central medallion is normally either of palmette quatrefoil type as in the Christie's 1996 rug or of cusped hexagonal form. It is medallions of this latter form which are used as the pendants to the main medallion of this carpet.
A related rug in the Keir Collection seems to have gone part of the way towards their extension seen in the present rug (Spuhler, Friedrich: Islamic Carpets and Textiles in the Keir Collection, London, 1978, no.24, pp.52 and 54). It is larger than the others in the group, although not as big as the present example, extending the field above and below the medallion with stylised pendant lamps, thus indicating the tripartite medallion structure which was fully developed in the present carpet.
One feature seen in the present carpet which is very unusual for Ushak rugs, at least within the types which were exported to the West such as this, is the positioning of the whole composition of the main field slightly in from the border. As if the designer was uncomfortable with this, a narrow white line has been incorporated delineating an inner field, a line which comes slightly too close for comfort to the central medallion. This is a feature, with or without the delineating line, which can be seen on a number of early carpets of types which have survived in mosques within Turkey (Oler, N. (intro. by): Turkish Carpets from the 13th-18th centuries, Istanbul, 1996, pls.30 and 93).
In her discussion of this piece noted above, Christine Klose draws attention to a 16th-17th century village carpet whose composition appears to derive from that of the present carpet, with its two smaller hexagonal medallions being used as pendants of the larger central medallion (Spuhler, Friedrich: Oriental Carpets in the Museum of Islamic Art, Berlin, London, 1988, no.23, col.pl.p.166).