UZBEKISTAN, MID 19TH CENTURY

There are a number of Beshir prayer rugs which have this narrow format, large quantities of ivory ground and a pinched bottle-shaped prayer niche. The present lot however has a rich, jewel-like colour which makes the pomegranate fruits appear even more enticing than most. The continuous minor stripe of paired alternate coloured arrow heads leads the eye around the rug before being channelled up the centre of the rug terminating within the niche head where the eye is held in a circulatory movement. According to Ralph Kaffel this rug is one of only three examples which have "disproportionately large 'heads' topping the mihrabs", and was previously unpublised, (Ralph Kaffel, Beshir Prayer Rugs, Hali, Issue 151, pp.74-83, fig.12). A closely related example is discussed by Uwe Jordan, Oriental Rugs, Volume 5, Turkoman, Augsburg, 1989, p.315, fig. 295. For further examples please see Ulrich Schürman, Central Asian Rugs, Frankfurt, p.125, pl.49; Werner Loges, Turkoman Tribal Rugs, New Jersey, 1980, pp.152-3, pl.89 and James Opie, Tribal Rugs, 1992, pp.310-11.