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Lot Essay
This is the largest of three sections from the same original carpet. The others are in a private German collection (Hali, vol.4, no.3, p.78, Textile Gallery advertisement), and the Christopher Alexander Collection (Alexander, Christopher: A Foreshadowing of 21st Century Art, the Colour and Geometry of Early Turkish Carpets, Oxford, 1993, pp.162-7).
The Turkish originals of the so-called 'Bird' carpets are attributed to the Ushak region of west Anatolia. Because early carpet exports from Turkey were not only extremely costly but also very difficult to obtain, wealthy patrons in Europe commissioned copies. The earliest known records of carpets being made in Europe in an Eastern style refer to 13th century Saracenic carpet weavers in France (Hali, vol.1, no.2, pp.208-9). In the collection of the Duke of Buccleuch are three handknotted European carpets woven with dates from the late sixteenth century which are direct copies of Turkish originals and are most likely to be of British manufacture.
When publishing his section from this carpet, Professor Christopher Alexander attributes it to France. This appears to be based on the fact that a green-ground pile rug with a different field design is depicted in the Duc de Berry Très Riches Heures. It is true that the present carpet does not have the tight and dense structure normally associated with the English knotted pile "Turkyee-worke" that was used extensively for upholstery for the next hundred years or so. Yet the quality of the wool and hues are very much in the English taste and differ in that regard from contemporaneous hand-knotted German carpets, such as one in London (Kendrick, A.F.: Victoria and Albert Museum, Catalogue of Tapestries, London, 1924) and another in the Germanisches Nationalmuseum, Nürnberg (Hali, vol.4, no.3, p.79). It has to be hoped that one day another rug of similar structure and with a similar rendering of the floral form seen in the border of this carpet might come to light and offer more information as to the specific origin. In the meantime, as no French hand-knotted pile carpets are known to survive from this period, an attribution to England seems the most probable option.
The Turkish originals of the so-called 'Bird' carpets are attributed to the Ushak region of west Anatolia. Because early carpet exports from Turkey were not only extremely costly but also very difficult to obtain, wealthy patrons in Europe commissioned copies. The earliest known records of carpets being made in Europe in an Eastern style refer to 13th century Saracenic carpet weavers in France (Hali, vol.1, no.2, pp.208-9). In the collection of the Duke of Buccleuch are three handknotted European carpets woven with dates from the late sixteenth century which are direct copies of Turkish originals and are most likely to be of British manufacture.
When publishing his section from this carpet, Professor Christopher Alexander attributes it to France. This appears to be based on the fact that a green-ground pile rug with a different field design is depicted in the Duc de Berry Très Riches Heures. It is true that the present carpet does not have the tight and dense structure normally associated with the English knotted pile "Turkyee-worke" that was used extensively for upholstery for the next hundred years or so. Yet the quality of the wool and hues are very much in the English taste and differ in that regard from contemporaneous hand-knotted German carpets, such as one in London (Kendrick, A.F.: Victoria and Albert Museum, Catalogue of Tapestries, London, 1924) and another in the Germanisches Nationalmuseum, Nürnberg (Hali, vol.4, no.3, p.79). It has to be hoped that one day another rug of similar structure and with a similar rendering of the floral form seen in the border of this carpet might come to light and offer more information as to the specific origin. In the meantime, as no French hand-knotted pile carpets are known to survive from this period, an attribution to England seems the most probable option.