A Central Anatolian rug,

The wildly stylized rendering and placement of the border elements in this rug create a dramatic impact, overpowering the diminished field space that encloses a comparatively delicate medallion.  This composition is shared with a small group of  Turkish village rugs variously attributed to Bergama or Konya, western or central Anatolia.  Wherever they may have been woven, the color palette, weave and unusual design of these rugs certainly point to a common place of origin.   The medallion here resembles the tracery in the field of western Anatolian carpets such as 16th century Oushak carpets, for one example,  the Oushak star medallion carpet in the Kirchheim collection, see Kirchheim, E. H., ed., Orient Stars, London and Stuttgart, 1993, pl. 192, p. 301.  Yet, the archaic quality of design and coloring in the border motifs is much more reminiscent of central Anatolian weavings, such as the corner elements in a Konya rug also in the Kirchheim collection, ibid., pl. 178, pp. 256-7 or those in the Christopher Alexander collection, see Alexander, C., A Foreshadowing of 21st Century Art, New York and Oxford, 1993, pp. 169 and 173. 

The overall design scheme of bold border, narrow field with medallion, inner narrow guard stripe and outer guard border in this rug are most closely shared with three published examples; please see Herrmann, E., Asiatische Teppich-und Textilkunst, vol. 1, Munich, 1989, pl. 9; Hali, issue 55, Boralevi ad, p. 45; and Hali, issue 31, p. 94.  Other rugs with a similar pattern, although with small differences in the guard borders, include Sotheby's New York, September 17, 1992, lot 84; and Jacobi, H., Eine Sammlung Orientalisher Teppiche, pl. 25, then Friedsam collection now in the Brooklyn Museum of Art.  Examples of rugs with a similar format, yet with a rosette-filled field as well as variations in the border, include McMullan, Joseph V., Islamic Carpets, New York, 1965, pl. 114, now in the Metropolitan Museum of Art; Spuhler, Konig and Volkmann, Old Eastern Carpets, Munich, 1978, pl. 27; Herrmann, Eberhart, Seltene Orienteppiche, X, Munich, 1988, pl. 16; and Sotheby's New York, April 7, 1999, lot 35.