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Lot Essay
The "ornamented" version of the "Lotto" design is by far the rarest of the three different variants. Kurt Erdmann by the time of his death had noted "at least five hundred examples of the "Lotto" group" (Erdmann, Kurt: Seven Hundred Years of Oriental Carpets, London, 1970, p.60). Unfortunately it was only later that Ellis differentiated between the three different field designs, and the statistics of how many of the five hundred are ornamented, let alone how many of those are larger than the small seventeenth century examples which tend to have cartouche borders, are unavailable. Suffice it to say that it is a very small number indeed of "ornamented" field designs which, like the present example, can be dated to the sixteenth century.
A very similar but larger carpet, again with ornamented version of the field and the same border as is seen here, was sold by Lefevre and Partners, London, 27th April 1979, lot 19. It sold to Eberhart Herrmann who subsequently published it (Seltene Orientteppiche (II), von Ushak bis Yarkand, Munich, 1980, p.29). That had three repeats of the design horizontally rather than the two seen here and measured 12ft.7in. x 7ft.6in. (383cm. x 228cm.). One other Lotto carpet with comparable field design but within a palmette and paired arabesque border is in the Musée Jacquemart André, Paris (Tapis, présent de l'orient à l'occident, exhibition catalogue, Paris, 1989, pp.72-3). A slightly stiffer version which lacks the optical illusion of the circles formed by the elements, with the cartouche border frequently found on carpets of other field variants, is in the Staatsgalerie, Stuttgart (Gantzhorn, Volkmar: The Christian Oriental Carpet, Cologne, 1991, ill.396, p.277).
This remarkable carpet is one of the rarest of all "Lotto" variants. It has survived in a remarkable state of preservation.
A very similar but larger carpet, again with ornamented version of the field and the same border as is seen here, was sold by Lefevre and Partners, London, 27th April 1979, lot 19. It sold to Eberhart Herrmann who subsequently published it (Seltene Orientteppiche (II), von Ushak bis Yarkand, Munich, 1980, p.29). That had three repeats of the design horizontally rather than the two seen here and measured 12ft.7in. x 7ft.6in. (383cm. x 228cm.). One other Lotto carpet with comparable field design but within a palmette and paired arabesque border is in the Musée Jacquemart André, Paris (Tapis, présent de l'orient à l'occident, exhibition catalogue, Paris, 1989, pp.72-3). A slightly stiffer version which lacks the optical illusion of the circles formed by the elements, with the cartouche border frequently found on carpets of other field variants, is in the Staatsgalerie, Stuttgart (Gantzhorn, Volkmar: The Christian Oriental Carpet, Cologne, 1991, ill.396, p.277).
This remarkable carpet is one of the rarest of all "Lotto" variants. It has survived in a remarkable state of preservation.