A Konya fragmentary rug, South Central Anatolia

San Francisco, M. H. de Young Museum, The Christopher Alexander Collection, November 1990 - February 1991.

Alexander, C., A Foreshadowing of 21^st Century Art The Color and Geometry of Very Early Turkish Carpets, New York, 1993, pp. 192 - 195, ill. pp. 29 & 193.

'The Exhibitions' Hali, October, 1990, issue 53, p.241

Overall measurements; Fragment - 137cm across the top, 153cm across the bottom (widest point), 251cm the left had side, 251cm the right hand side. Browns oxidised. Blue green up to 2-4mm pile. Damaged but total length and width of the rug can be seen. Glorious colour, beautiful drawing. Mounted. An image of the weave can be requested from the department, harry.grenfell@sothebys.com, +44(0)207 293 5556
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This archaic and wonderfully coloured work bears a number of similarities to lot 63 in this sale, to such a degree it seems likely they were woven in close proximity - this example is likely a little later in dating than lot 63. Another Alexander piece which shares the blue, red and orange colouring associated with Konya works of this time, is the Konya prayer rug, lot 121. Recognition of these fantastic village works from Central Anatolia is owed to the enthusiasm of collectors such as Alexander and Heinrich Kircheim and to the recent publication of the Ballard Collection in the Saint Louis Art Museum, Missouri, by Walter Denny. 

The present example is beautifully balanced with a complicated array of rich organic colouring centred by an almost crimson field. A very similar example, which in turn is likened to the Alexander work, can be seen, Concaro. E., A., Levi, Sovrani Tappeti. Il tappet orientale dal XV al XIX secolo. Duecento capolavori di art tessile, Milan, 1999, p. 47. Here the authors, like Alexander, ascribe the medallion and secondary field motifs to the ‘Holbein’ group, and give a dating to the 15^th century. Similarities can be drawn to works from the 15^th/16^th century, such as the ‘Para-Mamluk rug’ in the Philadelphia Museum of Art, no. 55.65.2, also believed to have been woven in Konya; this example also shares the central octagonal medallion with four minor medallions within the field and exhibits similar colouring, the border in this examples differs to the present lot, see Dodds. D., M. Eiland., Oriental Rugs from Atlantic Collections, Philadelphia, 1996, pl. 1. The border element in this and lot 63  is uncommon and interestingly can be seen in the medallion Oushak in the MAK, Vienna, which is dated to circa 1600, Völker. A., Die orientalischen Knüpfteppiche im MAK, Vienna, 2001, p. 53, cat. no. 15. Alexander observes that in the present example has a very well-articulated border solution which is unusual for a village weave, Alexander, 'Foreshadowing', op.cit., p. 192.