PROBABLY NORTH EAST ANATOLIA, 18TH CENTURY

The medallion and field design of this fragment can also be seen on another rug in a Hamburg private collection (see Schürmann, Ulrich: Teppiche aus dem Orient, Wiesbaden) and a fragment and a carpet in the Türk ve Islam Eserleri Museum, Istanbul, found in Hagia Sophia (see Yetkin, Serare: Early Caucasian Carpets in Turkey, London, 1978, pl.101 and 102). Schürmann classifies the Hamburg piece as Armenian, eighteenth century and Yetkin lists the TIEM pieces as medallion carpets, nineteenth century. The similarity in design and drawing of these three pieces could suggest that they are from the same looms or at least from the same region and tradition. Another rug with a similar white ground medallion on a different field was included in the fiftieth anniversary exhibition of the Hajji Baba Club (see Walker, Daniel: "Oriental Rugs of the Hajji Babas, Exhibition Review," Hali, Vol.4, no. 4, 1982, p.392, fig.5 and front cover). The Hajji Baba rug is attributed to the Erzurum region of north east Anatolia, late eighteenth or nineteenth century. The serrated palmettes and jagged drawing of these pieces also share design a affinity with eighteenth century Caucasian embroideries and dragon carpets.

The comparison in design of these pieces and the Caucasian pieces would suggest a northeast Anatolian origin. This attribution is supported by the discovery of the second Yetkin example in Erzurum.