PROBABLY USHAK, 17TH/18TH CENTURY

The original saf from which this fragment comes, or one of an almost identical design, is reputed to have come from the Ulu Cami (Great Mosque) of Bursa in western Anatolia, (Walter Denny, The Classical Tradition in Anatolian Carpets, Washington D.C., 2002, p.115, no.50.). There are a small number of related fragments including one in the Marshall and Marilyn R. Wolf Collection noted by Denny and another was in a private collection in Austria. The present lot however is noticeably more complete than the Wolf example and has five complete prayer niches including complete upper and lower guard stripes.