CENTRAL ANATOLIA, 18TH CENTURY

This rug uses the large flowerhead and paired leaf motif which is frequently encountered in the borders of many 17th-18th century Ghiordes and ‘Transylvanian' prayer rugs, but also appears in 18th-19th century central Anatolian and Melas rugs. This motif is used not only in the border but throughout the field. A comparable example was sold in the Christopher Alexander Collection, Christie's London, 15 October 1998, lot 210 (C. Alexander, A Foreshadowing of 21st Century Art, the Color and Geometry of Very Early Turkish Carpets, New York and Oxford, 1993, pp.328-331). Another long rug with the same combination was published by the late Magda Shapira (Anatolian Carpets from the Magda Shapira Collection, exhibition catalogue, London, 1976, no.10). A rug with the same field is in a private Italian collection (John Eskenazi, Il Tappeto Orientale, Torino, 1996, no.42, p.142). The same field motif appears on a rug which is amusingly prominent in a painting by Osman Hamdi Bey of The Carpet Merchant, painted in 1888, now in the Berlin Museum (N. Ölçer, (intro), Turkish Carpets from the 13th-18th centuries, Istanbul, 1996, frontispiece to plates).

Both Mrs Shapira and Professor Alexander refer to another example published by Reinhard Hubel (The Book of Carpets, London, 1971, pl.20) where Hubel notes that this design in Turkey is called kafala (head-pattern) and compares it to“ large birds in flight", while recognising its floral origin. This substantiates Alexander's assertion that the flowerhead and paired leaf motif is itself only an avatar of the much older and very symbolic ram's-horn motif which can be traced further into the prehistoric period.