MIDDLE AMU DARYA REGION, EARLY 19TH CENTURY

This beautiful white-ground prayer rug was previously unknown before it appeared for sale in Gothenburg in 2009. It belongs to the type 1A group of Beshir prayer rugs according to Ralph Kaffel's taxonomy ('Beshir Prayer Rugs' Hali 151, Spring 2007, pp.74-83) and is a particularly well-drawn and delicately coloured example. This group consists of seven white-ground rugs with an overall design of scrolling curled leaves, reminiscent of the stylized foliage often depicted on suzanis of the region. The present rug closely relates to the 'two paragons' ('APG', Hali 163, Spring 2010, p.123) of the white-ground group of Beshir prayer rugs, the Dudin rug, in the Museum of Ethnography in St Petersburg (Elena Tzareva, 'The Dudin Collection', Hali 27, July/August/September 1985, p.14), and the prayer rug published by Eberhart Herrmann in Asiatische Teppich - und Textilkunst, Vol. 3, Munich, 1991, no.59, p.126. All three rugs share a very similar dynamic overall field design of curling leaves, aptly described by Tsareva as 'bat-shaped', and the Herrmann rug and the present example share the same border. Ours has a number of unusual features, such as an additional central pole bisecting the mihrab and the large central kochak (ram's horn motif) surmounting the arch, which seems to be unique amongst this group.