EAST CAUCASUS, EARLY 19TH CENTURY

The present lot incorporates a number of archaic features. The spandrels to either side of the medallions contain stylised animals with long necks. They resemble the lion-like creatures which decorate the carpets of the 'Confronted Animal' group, such as the example in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (acc.no. 1990.61) and the fragmentary example formerly in the Kircheim Collection (Orient Stars: a Carpet Collection, Stuttgart, 1993, p.15), of which the latter was C-14 dated to the thirteenth century. It is not uncommon for such motifs to last hundreds of years, as one generation taught it to the next over the centuries. Our soumac is similar in design to an example with four medallions published by Eberhart Herrmann (Kaukasische Teppichkunst im 19. Jahrhundert: ein bilderbuch, Munich, 1993, p.54, pl.38). A further example, also with a corroded brown stripe running down either side of the central column, is published by Ian Bennett, (Oriental Rugs: Volume I Caucasian, London, 1981, p.357).