ATTRIBUTABLE TO ZAREH PENYAMIN, ISTANBUL, TURKEY, CIRCA 1920

The knot count measures approximately 11V x 10H knots per cm. sq.

By varying the colour palette in the 'Sultan's Head' prayer rugs, Zareh subtly altered the relationship between the main components of the design. The viewer may be struck differently by the mihrab, the spandrels, or by the border depending on the colours used and the relationship between them. So although this rug displays different colouring to that in lot 170, the flat-woven silk sections, the pseudo-Safavid inscription and the overall composition marks it as a product of Zareh's workshop. A comparable prayer rug of this type with a soft-red border was sold in these Rooms, 20 April 1993, lot 327. An example with rust red spandrels is in the Arkas Collection (Kumkapi Rugs from the Arkas Collection, exhibition catalogue, Izmir, 2017, pp.60-1, no.15).

Though the overall arrangement of motifs is the same, there are subtle variants in the cartoon which distinguish this rug from that in lot 170. At the apex of the metal-thread design inside the niche, the palmette on lot 170 is flanked by two large flowerheads executed in pile. On the present rug, by contrast, they have a metal thread finish at the center. Other small distinctions in the arabesque pattern between the two indicate that weavers were probably working from different cartoons. This tallies with the photographs of Koum Kapi workshops published by George Farrow, which show multiple different looms operating at the same time all of which were furnished with a hand-drawn design of the type offered in this sale, (see lots; 180, 182, and 183).