TARIM BASIN, EAST TURKESTAN, LATE 18TH CENTURY

The present lot is part of a small group of Khotan carpets woven by the Uyghur, which are identified by their formation of stacked compartments containing bold eight-pointed medallions. Likened visually, both by Volkmann and Schürmann, to the medallions used in the Kazak rugs of the Fachralo group, their form is also closely tied to ancient Sino-Tibetan geometric medallions, as seen in the silver Tibetan tangka coins which were first struck in the 17th century (illustrated above), (M. Volkmann, Alte Orientteppiche, Munich, 1985, pl.108, p.246; and Ulrich Schürmann, Central Asian Rugs, Frankfurt, 1969,). The two columned composition of the present rug, each of which contains three separate panels, is perhaps the largest in proportion of the group, with the majority of other comparable examples consisting of a single column with just two individual compartments, see Murray L.Eiland, Chinese and Exotic Rugs, London, 1979, pl.37. Two further examples include one with a 'Yun-Tsai-T'ou' cloud-band border that is in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London (Schürmann, op.cit, pl.87) and a slightly later, early 19th century example, that was exhibited by John Eskenazi at TEFAF 1994 ('Marketplace', Hali 74, p.150). A closely related example bearing both an octagonal and a square medallion within a fret-band border was offered at Christie's London, 21 April 2015, lot 105, and a carpet displaying two compartments each containing a square medallion was with John Eskenazi, London (Murray L. Eiland Jr., 'East Turkestan Rugs Revisited', Hali 85, p.99, fig.18).