WEST ANATOLIA, MID 17TH CENTURY

The name of this group derives from the near two hundred surviving examples preserved today in churches within Transylvania. Following a 1483 peace treaty between Mehmed II and Matthias Corvinus of Hungary (r. 1458-90), Hungarian and Transylvanian merchants were able to travel throughout the Ottoman empire and trade in the rugs which, once brought home, were often endowed to churches where they have been preserved ever since (Stefano Ionescu, Antique Ottoman Rugs in Transylvania, Rome, 2005, p.28). Markers added to the rugs and old inventories allow us to build a clear picture of the chronology and development of this rug design. This makes them possibly the best-documented of any group of pre-modern rugs.

Despite this wealth of documentary evidence, the origins of the ‘double-niche’ design remains obscure. The most colourful explanation refers to a 1610 firman issued by Ahmed I (r.1603-17) which forbade the depiction of a mihrab on objects which were widely traded with non-Muslims: by reflecting the design along the horizontal axis, the theory goes, the design became far enough removed from a prayer rug to allow it to be traded beyond the frontiers of the caliphate. Though perhaps somewhat fanciful, the fact that other examples have hanging mosque lamps at either end of the field does suggest that the design looks to prayer rugs for its origin.

The form of the rug can also be described from the evolution of existing forms. Red open fields were characteristic of small medallion Ushak rugs, as well as velvet pillow covers (yastiks) woven for the Ottoman court (Alberto Boralevi, Geometrie d’Oriente: Stefano Bardini e il tappeto antico, Livorno, 1999, no. 18, p. 66). Similarities with contemporary rugs suggests that they were woven in Anatolia, most likely the town of Ushak which by the seventeenth century had become the centre of a thriving export trade (Donald King and David Sylvester, The Eastern Carpet in the Western World from the 15^th to the 17^th Century, London, 1983, p.78). The Anatolian origin is also suggested by the fact that designs derived from the double-niche Transylvanian rugs were still woven in Anatolia into the early 20^th century.

Of examples surviving in Romanian churches, the earliest dated inscription comes from 1661 (Stefano Ionescu, op cit., p.61). Nonetheless, their appearance in European paintings slightly predates this: this design made one of its first appearances in Thomas de Keyser’s 1627 portrait of the Dutch poet Constantijn Huygens. Other appearances of this type of rug in Dutch paintings include Adriaen Backer's 1676 painting, The Amsterdam Almshouse Regents (see illustration). Paintings like this show that, in spite of its name, the Transylvanian rug spread far beyond the Carpathian mountains: examples also survive in collections in Sweden, Lebanon, and Cairo. Nonetheless, it is to the churches of Romania which we must look for the most comprehensive collection of rugs of this type.

The Black Church in Braşov has in its collection a rug with a near-identical field design to the present lot (inv.265; Stefano Ionescu, op cit., cat. 92, p.120). A slightly simplified form is seen on a rug sold in these Rooms, 8 April 2014, lot 49. A comparable example of the inner minor stripe on the present lot is harder to find, yet it appears as an outer guard stripe on a single niche rug also in Braşov (inv. 199; Stefano Ionescu, op cit., cat.153, p.143).