.jpg?w=1)
.jpg?w=1)
.jpg?w=1)
.jpg?w=1)
Lot Essay
By the middle of the seventeenth century Smyrna (Izmir), the Western Anatolian port on the Aegean Sea, had become one of the most important trading centres in Asia Minor (Onno Ydema, Carpets and their Datings in Netherlandish Paintings, 1540-1700, Zutphen, 1991, p.51). The so-called 'Smyrna' carpets were produced for the export market under the direct supervision of the Dutch (Werner Grote-Hasenbalg quoted in A. Boralevi, Oriental Geometries, Livorno, 1999, p.86).
The design of the present carpet is based upon an arrangement of well proportioned palmettes, rosettes and lanceolate leaves enclosed within a continuous polychrome rosette border. A similar rug of almost identical proportions which has the same border is in the Ballard Collection (J. F. Ballard, Catalogue of Oriental Rugs in the Collection of James F. Ballard, Indiana, 1924, p.162, No.87). The Ballard rug has an addition not seen in ours, of two bold rosettes between lanceolate leaves in the upper portion. Another very similar example with the same rosette border and comparable in size but with a field having two columns of palmettes is in the Amir Pakzad Carpet Museum in Hanover (Almut von Gladiss, Islamische Teppiche und Textilien, Hanover, 1987, pl.59, p.69). Another fragmentary example, is in the Bardini Collection (A. Boralevi, Geometrie d'Oriente Stefano Bardini e il Tappeto Antico, Florence, 1999, p.89, pl.28). The border is different having floral cartouches but the field and stripes are identical in design and the size is similar. These carpets, having taken their inspiration from Ottoman designs, were transported from Smyrna to Europe where it became one of the sought-after designs in Europe in the late 18th and 19th centuries and was woven in all possible carpet sizes.
The design of the present carpet is based upon an arrangement of well proportioned palmettes, rosettes and lanceolate leaves enclosed within a continuous polychrome rosette border. A similar rug of almost identical proportions which has the same border is in the Ballard Collection (J. F. Ballard, Catalogue of Oriental Rugs in the Collection of James F. Ballard, Indiana, 1924, p.162, No.87). The Ballard rug has an addition not seen in ours, of two bold rosettes between lanceolate leaves in the upper portion. Another very similar example with the same rosette border and comparable in size but with a field having two columns of palmettes is in the Amir Pakzad Carpet Museum in Hanover (Almut von Gladiss, Islamische Teppiche und Textilien, Hanover, 1987, pl.59, p.69). Another fragmentary example, is in the Bardini Collection (A. Boralevi, Geometrie d'Oriente Stefano Bardini e il Tappeto Antico, Florence, 1999, p.89, pl.28). The border is different having floral cartouches but the field and stripes are identical in design and the size is similar. These carpets, having taken their inspiration from Ottoman designs, were transported from Smyrna to Europe where it became one of the sought-after designs in Europe in the late 18th and 19th centuries and was woven in all possible carpet sizes.