MIDDLE AMU DARYA REGION, FIRST HALF 19TH CENTURY

This prayer rug is closely related to a rug sold in these rooms, 8 October 2013, lot 74, a type 1A Beshir prayer rug according to Ralph Kaffel's classification. The present prayer rug differs from the comparable examples listed in the note to that rug as it has a more ordered and static arrangement of the curled-leaf field design than the Gothenburg, Dudin and Herrmann rugs, and is very similar to the Jim Dixon 1A prayer rug (Ralph Kaffel, 'Beshir Prayer Rugs' Hali 151,fig.2, pp.74-75). In both our rug and the Dixon prayer rug the curled leaf design appears to have been formalized and the curled leaves almost appear to echo the shape of the small kochak or ram's horn motifs that surmount the prayer arch.