.jpg?w=1)
Lot Essay
This very unusual rug is a fascinating addition to the canon of 18th century Caucasian rugs. We know of only one other rug of the same design, a piece formerly in the collection of Armen Tokatlian, Paris and published by Eberhart Herrmann, Asiatische Teppich und Textilkunst, Band 1, Munich, 1989, pl.23, p.54. The unusual design appears to be an abstracted form of a 18th century Caucasian pictorial carpet, two fragments of which survive in the Turk ve Islam Museum, Istanbul, inv. no. 887 and 75 (Hulya Tezcan et al., Weaving Heritage of Anatolia 2, Istanbul, 2007, pl.118, p.140 and Serare Yetkin, Early Caucasian Carpets in Turkey, London, 1978, pl.103). The design is remarkably closely related, down to the figures appearing seated on raised daises and even makes sense of the flattened stars crowning the cypresses on the present rug as the motif is clearly a bird in the Turk ve Islam Museum fragments.
If the design of the present rug is deconstructed a number of elements can be traced back to other more classical 18th century Caucasian carpets. The most apparent source for the design is the 18th century Caucasian cypress carpets such as the example formerly in the John D. McIlhenny Collection and now in the Philadelphia Museum of Art (Charles Grant Ellis, Oriental Carpets in the Philadelphia Museum of Art, London, 1988, pl.45, pp.144-146). The similarity of the palette and the cypress motifs is immediately apparent, but if you consider the radiating palmettes that surround the central rosette in the ivory medallion in isolation they can be read as the secondary ornaments that appear between the robotic figures and cypresses in the present rug. The alternating pine cone and rosette border is found on two of the rare group of 18th century sunburst Kazak rugs, the one sold in these Rooms, 7 October 2014, lot 56 and the rug in the collection of the Victoria and Albert Museum, inv. no. T264-1927 (Jennifer Wearden, Oriental Carpets and their Structure, Highlights from the V & A Collection, London, 2003, pl.38, p.53 ). The robotic, almost alien-like, figures are the most intriguing and mysterious element of the design. At present we are aware of only one other rug, which is in a private American West Coast collection, which has a similar figure.
If the design of the present rug is deconstructed a number of elements can be traced back to other more classical 18th century Caucasian carpets. The most apparent source for the design is the 18th century Caucasian cypress carpets such as the example formerly in the John D. McIlhenny Collection and now in the Philadelphia Museum of Art (Charles Grant Ellis, Oriental Carpets in the Philadelphia Museum of Art, London, 1988, pl.45, pp.144-146). The similarity of the palette and the cypress motifs is immediately apparent, but if you consider the radiating palmettes that surround the central rosette in the ivory medallion in isolation they can be read as the secondary ornaments that appear between the robotic figures and cypresses in the present rug. The alternating pine cone and rosette border is found on two of the rare group of 18th century sunburst Kazak rugs, the one sold in these Rooms, 7 October 2014, lot 56 and the rug in the collection of the Victoria and Albert Museum, inv. no. T264-1927 (Jennifer Wearden, Oriental Carpets and their Structure, Highlights from the V & A Collection, London, 2003, pl.38, p.53 ). The robotic, almost alien-like, figures are the most intriguing and mysterious element of the design. At present we are aware of only one other rug, which is in a private American West Coast collection, which has a similar figure.