An Anatolian carpet fragment

Alexander, C., A Foreshadowing of 21^st Century Art The Color and Geometry of Very Early Turkish Carpets, New York, 1993, pp. 325 - 326, ill. p. 325.

Alexander. C., 'Early Turkish Rugs A New Way of Looking', Hali, April, 1991, issue 56, p. 123.

Overall measurements; 47cm across the top, 59cm across the bottom, 59cm horizontally through the middle, 100cm the left hand side, 59cm the right hand side, 110cm vertically through the middle. The backing 121 by 70cm. Thick lustrous wool and intense colour, pile 6-8mm generally even, some very minor moth damage, as visible in the photograph. Contact department for additional images: harry.grenfell@sothebys.com
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Alexander assigns this beautiful fragment to  Bergama, due to the incorporation of ‘Ghirlandaio’ motifs, named after the 15^th century Italian painter Domenico Ghirlandaio. As Alexander notes, these motifs appear in 17^th and 18^th ‘Holbein variant’ carpets; he cites two examples in the McMullan Collection, Metropolitan Museum, New York, Joseph V. McMulllan Islamic Carpets, New York, 1965, pls. 96 & 97, although Alexander does not mention his own ‘Large Pattern Holbein’ which also demonstrates this motif, lot 88. What is notable in the present lot is the repeat of the ‘Ghirlandaio’ motif, more akin to that of Turkman weaves, as is the dark brown-black pile, which is suggests an Eastern Anatolian origin is possible.