SELENDI OR WEST ANATOLIA, EARLY 17TH CENTURY

The 'Bird' rugs are so called from their formulaic arrangement of angular motifs which form a lattice within the field but which in reality are more likely to derive from floral or arabesque motifs. Iznik tiles from the mosque of Rustem Pasha of 1559 are noted by Ferenc Batari as showing a similar development of the design from a çintamani original ('White ground Carpets in Budapest', in R. Pinner and W. Denny, (ed.): Oriental Carpet and Textile Studies, II, Carpets of the Mediterranean Countries 1400-1600, London, 1986, pp.197-199). In his discussion of the large 'Bird' carpet in the Ufizzi, Carlo Suriano notes however that the earliest painting of a 'Bird' rug, showing the fully developed design, is dated to 1557 (Portrait, by Hans Mielich, about 1557, Collection of Mrs Rush H. Kress, New York, reproduced in M.S Dimand and Jean Mailey, Oriental Rugs in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, New York, 1983, p.192). This shows the two to be contemporaneous at the least, assuming that the rug was new when depicted (Carlo Maria Suriano, 'Patterns of Patronage, Classical carpets in the Bargello Museum, Florence', HALI, Issue 83, October/November 1995, pp.84-86).
The most commonly encountered 'Bird' rugs are woven on a small-scale format and all either have a white part medallion border or a white cloudband border, as seen here, with small variations in their detail. Complete small format examples that have sold in these Rooms include an unusual variant sold 17 October 1996, lot 428, another on 14 October 1999, lot 140 and one more recently on 19 April 2016, lot 48.