CENTRAL ANATOLIA, 16TH/17TH CENTURY

As we have noticed in the border of lot 104, there are a number of motifs that were used both for the classical "export" carpets and for the village rugs of the same period. The present village border is another example of this. The colouring with its rich saturated and varied colouring is a village weaving, never intended for export. The design however is similar but a more complex and older variant as is found for instance on a 'Lotto' rug fragment formerly in the Alexander Collection (Alexander, op. cit., p.245), and a small medallion Ushak rug (Eberhart Hermann, Seltene Orientteppiche VIII, 1986, pp.18-19). In the Ushak examples the meandering stem is broken between each rosette, while here it is continuous. A further link with the Ushak carpets is given by an east Anatolian variant on a "Star" Ushak design in Istanbul where this design is used as the major or minor border, the rosettes alternating with palmettes, but issuing the same trefoil leaves (Belkis Balpinar and Udo Hirsch, Vakiflar Museum Istanbul, Carpets, Wesel, 1988, pls. 37 and 38, pp.250-253). A related border, with similar alternation of the main motifs, is found on a seventeenth century carpet that was exhibited recently in Milan (Jon Thompson, Milestones in the History of Carpets, Milan, 2006, pl.11, pp.118-9).