KAZAK REGION, SOUTH CAUCASUS, MID 19TH CENTURY

Rugs of this type were woven in the Moghan region, on the borders of Iran in present-day Azerbaijan. The field is covered in an overall repeat pattern of ‘Memling’ guls, so called because they often appeared on Anatolian carpets depicted by the Flemish artist, Hans Memling, in the 16th century. Though these guls are believed to find their origins in the Central Asian steppes before the age of Turkish migrations, by the 19th century much of their original significance had been forgotten and they had become more of a design motif than a symbol of tribal identity. Comparable examples with a similar arrangement displaying only two columns of guls, include two pieces published by Peter Bausback, (Antike Orientalische Knupfkunst, Mannheim, 1976, p.112; and The Old and Antique Oriental Art of Weaving, Mannheim, 1983, p.71). A further example – square in proportion – also exhibits similar polychrome chequered minor motifs between the columns Eberhart Herrmann,(Asiatische Teppich- und Textilkunst, Munich, 1991, p.33, fig.12).