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Lot Essay
The design of this rug very clearly relates to that of a group of seventeenth century Karapinar rugs, the most classic of which is in the Textile Museum (H.McCoy Jones and Ralph Yohe, Turkish Rugs, Washington D.C., 1968, no.43, among other publications). This, and others of the group, have medallions containing radiating floral sprays among which can be recognised tulips, while above and below are palmettes (For a discussion of the group please see May H. Beattie, "Some Rugs of the Konya Region", Oriental Art, vol.XXII, no.1, Spring, 1976, pp.60-76). The present rug has exactly these elements, combined with a secondary flower which appears on many rugs and is an allusion to the hyacinth floret. It also shares the main border with one used by the Karapinar group, as seen on a carpet formerly in the Murray-Graham Collection, now in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, Inv. No. T65.1959 (M. Beattie, op.cit.p.71). Opinion varies on the source of the kotchak border design but is perhaps most frequently related to the male rams' horn, suggesting strength and virility and was used prevalently in Turkman carpets and jewellery.
Yet that is where the similarity stops. The wool is long and fleecy, much longer and silkier than the normal Karapinar group. The structure is closer to some of the 'yellow ground Konya' group with its natural wool warp, no depression, and generally four shoots of natural brown wefts. The colours are brilliant, rich and deep, working in great juxtaposition with one another and together with the powerful enjoying sharp juxtapositioning which, coupled with the very strong drawing, gives a great power to this carpet. A closely related but fragmentary carpet, that was formerly in the Christopher Alexander Collection (C. Alexander, A Foreshadowing of 21st Century Art, New York and Oxford, 1993, pp.334-335), and which sold in these Rooms, 10 April 2008, lot 105, displays a double stepped polychrome lozenge in a narrow mushroom-brown border with hooked leaves and meandering vine. Writing of that carpet Professor Alexander notes "It is this barbaric "thing", this actual essence of our human nature which is reached, plumbed, pierced when a carpet is made correctly".
Yet that is where the similarity stops. The wool is long and fleecy, much longer and silkier than the normal Karapinar group. The structure is closer to some of the 'yellow ground Konya' group with its natural wool warp, no depression, and generally four shoots of natural brown wefts. The colours are brilliant, rich and deep, working in great juxtaposition with one another and together with the powerful enjoying sharp juxtapositioning which, coupled with the very strong drawing, gives a great power to this carpet. A closely related but fragmentary carpet, that was formerly in the Christopher Alexander Collection (C. Alexander, A Foreshadowing of 21st Century Art, New York and Oxford, 1993, pp.334-335), and which sold in these Rooms, 10 April 2008, lot 105, displays a double stepped polychrome lozenge in a narrow mushroom-brown border with hooked leaves and meandering vine. Writing of that carpet Professor Alexander notes "It is this barbaric "thing", this actual essence of our human nature which is reached, plumbed, pierced when a carpet is made correctly".