A ‘TRANSYLVANIAN’ PRAYER RUG
A ‘TRANSYLVANIAN’ PRAYER RUG
A ‘TRANSYLVANIAN’ PRAYER RUG
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A ‘TRANSYLVANIAN’ PRAYER RUG
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This lot will be removed to Christie’s Park Royal.… Read more
A ‘TRANSYLVANIAN’ PRAYER RUG

WESTERN ANATOLIA, LATE 17TH CENTURY

Details
A ‘TRANSYLVANIAN’ PRAYER RUG
WESTERN ANATOLIA, LATE 17TH CENTURY
Even overall wear, scattered spots of repair and repiling, outer minor stripes partially rewoven, ends rewoven
5ft.5in. x 4ft.1in. (166cm. x 125cm.)
Provenance
With Davide Halevim, 1982
Literature
HALI, Issue 5, no 2, p.3
Special notice
This lot will be removed to Christie’s Park Royal. Christie’s will inform you if the lot has been sent offsite. Our removal and storage of the lot is subject to the terms and conditions of storage which can be found at Christies.com/storage and our fees for storage are set out in the table below - these will apply whether the lot remains with Christie’s or is removed elsewhere. Please call Christie’s Client Service 24 hours in advance to book a collection time at Christie’s Park Royal. All collections from Christie’s Park Royal will be by pre-booked appointment only. Tel: +44 (0)20 7839 9060 Email: cscollectionsuk@christies.com. If the lot remains at Christie’s it will be available for collection on any working day 9.00 am to 5.00 pm. Lots are not available for collection at weekends. This lot has been imported from outside of the UK for sale and placed under the Temporary Admission regime. Import VAT is payable at 5% on the hammer price. VAT at 20% will be added to the buyer’s premium but will not be shown separately on our invoice.

Brought to you by

Behnaz Atighi Moghaddam
Behnaz Atighi Moghaddam Head of Sale

Lot Essay

Unlike other Anatolian rugs of this period, the present lot is one of a group that abandoned the predominant geometry and angularity of design and employed a subtle palette with elegant, delicate drawing. This West Anatolian village workshop prayer rug is directly influenced by the magnificent Ottoman carpets produced in the court ateliers of Sulayman the Magnificent in 16th century Turkey, (Joseph V. McMullan, Islamic Carpets, New York, 1965, p.32-3, no.4.)

The present lot is unusual for this particular group of 'Transylvanian' prayer rugs, of which there are eleven recorded examples, whose principle characteristics are defined by a plain field, ivory spandrels with flowering stems and a palmette, lobed blossom and serrated leaf-filled border. The hexagonal cartouche border of the present rug is one that is more commonly associated with the column prayer rugs, an example of which is in the Black Church in Braşov, see 'Transylvanian Turkish Rugs', Museum of Applied Arts, Budapest, 2020, pp.228-229, no.206. A "Transylvanian" prayer rug with the same hexagonal cartouche border and diagonally-striped guard stripes as the present rug but with a plain sandy-yellow field, is in the Hungarian Lutheran Church in Braşov, (Stefano Ionoescu, Antique Ottoman Rugs in Transylvania, Rome, 2005, cat. no,168). Both that rug and the present lot display a small hanging floral pendant in the apex of the arch which recall the hanging mosque lamps used within the churches. Most examples from this group display the more common pale fields, and not the present madder-red field, comparable to The Rothschild-Carlowitz prayer rug, of leaf and blossom border, see HALI, Issue 39, p.43 and George Butterweck, et. al., Antike Anatolische Teppich, Vienna, 1983, pl.9, pp.68-69.

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