FIRST HALF 19TH CENTURY

The field design of the present runner derives ultimately from the triple overlaid vase design that has been reduced to its purest geometry: different coloured stems linking stylised well-spaced flowerheads. Runners similar in design can be found from the South Caucasus, mostly attributed to Moghan. One with an indigo-blue field was sold in these Rooms, 18 October 2001, lot 283 as part of the James D. Burns Collection and another one with a white field was sold on 17 October 2002, lot 157. The latter is closely related to an example illustrated in Eberhart Herrmann, Seltene Orientteppiche IX, Munich 1987, No.33, pp.82-82. The lattice in the Moghan rugs is much denser than in our rug, and the flowerheads are if anything only partly connected to the sprays, indicating that the Moghan rugs are probably later in date.

The olive-green field colour in our lot is unusual to find in combination with the design and there appears to be no other example known. The colour is much more typical of weavings from North West Persia. The border also, with its very curvilinear rendering, also indicates North West Persia rather than the Caucasus as an origin, as does the tight weaving with wavy red wefting. The border in tonality is very interesting as it appears to be very possibly the prototype for a whole group of Caucasian borders, from a blossom carpet illustrated in Serare Yetkin (Early Caucasian Carpets in Turkey, Vol.1, London 1978, plate 67), to the well-known very angular Borjalu Kazak border such as those illustrated by Ralph Kaffel (Caucasian Prayer Rugs, London, 1998, p.44-45) and Ulrich Schürrmann, (Caucasian Rugs, Cologne, 1964, pp.78-79). This again indicates a date in the first half of the 19th century for our runner, and possibly even earlier.