TURKISH RUGS

Note the boldly rendered Ottoman tulips bracketed by spiky hyacinth blossoms.

The distinctive palette with a preponderance of pale yellow is rare and may suggest a weaving center in the Cappadocia region. Note the retention of 15th c. Ottoman devices of tulips, carnations and hyacinths. The pattern is woven in the rare 'kilim style' with no outlines between the design elements.

Large octagons of this Holbein type are signature elements in earlier pile weavings from central Anatolia. Rugs of this type were often woven as long runners. This example probably had four medallions originally.

The saz leaf was one of the primary elements in early Ottoman art. Here it is stylized into a more angular form, with a branch of hyacinth blossoms superimposed upon each leaf. The long silky wool has much luster and indicates a weaving center in the Gelveri-Karapinar region.

Old Milas rugs display a wide palette of excellent vegetal dyes and this one is no exception. The pale aubergine border shows a number of unusual design elements, including diagonal leaf forms, carnations and bold kaikalik crosses from an ancient Turkic vocabulary. The central panel beneath the arch is dominated by two oversized saz leaves from the Ottoman repertoire, but are here highly stylized. Around the central panel is a border of distinctive cypress trees.

The copper red dye and long staple lustrous wool is distinctive in a specific group of rugs from Aksaray, as are the cross devices seen in the border and inside the medallions. Other types were made in the environs with completely different characteristics. The aubergine dye is typical of weavings in the region. Octagonal reserves are formed by hooked, triangular brackets and within each are bold Crivelli-type medallions, one rendered in clear pale blue and the other in yellow-green. Each medallion centers a large, archaic Turkic kaikalik motif. Along the bottom is a panel of stepped devices in a kufesque style. A fragment, consisting of the top half of an almost identical rug, identified as Aksaray, 18th century, was with Mehmet Cetinkaya in Istanbul in 2007. Another very similar complete rug, with the same copper red ground and two large blue-green Crivelli medallions, was exhibited by Franz Sailer in the Perugia Carpet Fair in 1997: ANTICHI ARTI TESSILI. It is published in the catalogue, p 68, and attributed to "Aksaray, 17th century." 

The straw yellow field is very unusual, as is the spare presentation of detached, tripartitie floral sprays. These are seen in Ottoman Iznik ceramics of the 17th century and also are reminiscent of a Moghul style. The delicate palmette at the apex of the elegant ribbon arch in this village prayer rug is also an unexpected element from the Classical album. Triangular devices in the upper section denote talismanic nazarlik motifs.