AUCTION PRICE GUIDE

TURKEY

market confidence in beautiful later classical carpets, not necessarily of great ‘art historical’ significance, but in good order.

| Star Ushak Carpet Late 16th/17th century 1.79 x 3.23m (5'10" x 10'7") Nagel, Stuttgart 8 November 2005, lot 146a Est: €10,000 Sold for: €172,900 ($209,360) The star lot in Hans Homm’s first major sale as Nagel’s rug expert, this carpet was complete, in good condition and was bought by an Italian dealer. It is not the earliest or most art historically significant Star Ushak to appear on the market, but it nevertheless set a new auction record for the genre, rising more than 25% above the $148,555 set at CLO on 24 April 1997 (HALI 93, p.125). Six other Star Ushaks have made more than $50,000 at auction in the past two decades: Nagel, 23 June 1993, $94,275, HALI 70, p.139; CLO, 29 April 2004, $80,375, HALI 135, p.103; RB, 17 November 2001, $79,920, HALI 121, p.135; CLO, 16 October 1997, $77,275, HALI 96, p.138; SLO, 14 October 1987, $68,640, HALI 37, p.86; and Finarte, 15 November 1997, $67,930, HALI 97, p.133. Of ‘table carpet’ size, with good colours, subtly abrashed, especially a rich blue, this lot has a compact workshop weave, somewhatakin to that on the small-medallion Ushak group (15th/16th century) and the ‘first-phase ‘Transylvanians’ (early 17th). As with the Safra Khorasan carpet sold at SNY three days earlier, this lot shows

116 I HALI 144

| West (?) Anatolian Rug 17th/18th century 1.31 x 2.10m (4'4" x 6'11") Sotheby’s London 12 October 2005, lot 51 Est: £3-5,000 Sold for: £3,600 ($6,300) Assigned by SLO to the Ushak region, this rug has a design ultimately descended from the 16th/ 17th century Safavid palmette carpet design tradition mediated through the Azerbaijan/eastern Anatolian weaving complex, within a very pretty west Anatolian floral meander border. Previously it was a late arrival on the stand of a Cotswolds dealer at the 2005 HALI Fair at Olympia. If only it had been in better condition!

| Kum Kapı Carpet Circa 1920 2.08 x 2.94m (6'10" x 9'8") Christie’s London 13 October 2005, lot 20 Est: £60-80,000 Sold for: £198,000 ($346,500) This fine silk on silk carpet brocaded with metal thread, woven in an Armenian

workshop in Istanbul is drawn and executed with a mastery that in the 20th century is only surpassed by the ustads of Pahlavi Iran. It fetched a record auction price for a Kum Kapı silk and precious metal carpet, far exceeding the amounts paid in public for any of the more common smaller format pieces in both prayer and overall repeat designs. Although unsigned it is perhaps attributable to the Zareh atelier on account of its purple silk selvedges. A signed Zareh of almost identical size, although to our eyes less beautiful and with a different ‘golden’ tonality, sold also at CLO on 20 October 1994 for $214,935 (HALI 78, p.128).

| Ottoman Metal Thread Applied Velvet Panel 18th century 1.93 x 2.18m (6'4" x 7'2") Christie’s London 11 October 2005, lot 26 Est: £8-12,000 Sold for: £8,400 ($14,700) Hangings from the various holy sites of Mecca with sacred texts included in their adornment have sold for huge prices recently. But this panel missed out, as the inscription has been impossible to decipher – Christie’s don’t even know what language it is written in. One therefore cannot define whether its purpose was religious or secular, thus restricting its current use to the latter. The velvet used for the background cloth has seen better days, although the calligraphy is arranged in a stylish and almost geometric arrangement. Perhaps if it had it been in glittering, pristine condition it may well have gained greater attention and therefore sold for a higher figure.

THE CAUCASUS

| Sumakh Carpet Mid-19th century 1.80 x 3.30m (5'11" x 10'10") Sotheby’s, London 12 October 2005, lot 11 Est: £12-18,000 Sold for: £22,800 ($39,900) Even when they don’t have the most popular ‘Dragon’ design, quality sumakhs that pre-date or exclude the rash of synthetic colours that were so enthusiastically adopted in the region as soon as they were available, command top prices, unrivalled by any of the region’s other flatwovenproducts. This handsome example has a shield palmette design descendedfrom the 17th century Caucasian/ Azerbaijan repertoire.

This is the fourth of the listed examples, previously with Herrmann (ATT2, pl.31). Most bear early dates, within the period from American Independence (1776, CLO, 23 April 1981, lot 50 = HALI 4/1, p.87) to the end of the Napoleonic Wars (1815, HALI 31, p.97). The others are HALI 27, p.96 = RB, 18 November 1989, lot 115; Fiske, Prayer Rugs From Private Collections, pl.26 = King, Prayer Rugs, cover = HALI 5/2, p.55 = HALI 71, p.152; Kaffel, CPR, pl.31, Exner Collection = RB, 14 November 1992, lot 140 = HALI 67, p.131 = Eskenazi, L’Arte del Tappeto Orientale, pl.156 = Black, MacMillan Atlas of Rugs and Carpets, p.11; and an undated fragment in HALI 70, p.128. Skinner had a later rug (1 June 1991, lot 174) dated 1865, the only late example using this characteristic border. As CLO point out in their detailed caption, their rug is the only one in the group with a secondary border, and the only one dated in the border rather than in the spandrels.

| South Caucasian Prayer Rug Dated 1222 AH (1808 AD ) 1.25 x 1.57m (4'1" x 5'2") Christie’s London 13 October 2005, lot 38 Est: £25-35,000 Sold for: £31,200 ($54,600) One of an ‘elite’ group of seven known early carpets discussed in detail in Ralph Kaffel’s Caucasian Prayer Rugs(caption to pl.31, note on page 177).

| Kuba Rug Second half 19th century 1.01 x 1.26m (3'4" x 4'2") Rippon Boswell Wiesbaden 28 May 2005, lot 71 Est: €14,000 Sold for: €16,800 ($21,085) A very good example of the highly collectable yellowground palmette-design Kuba family. The field is nicely framed by a main border of stylised Zeikhurpink rosettes on a red ground. A related yellowground rug sold for a comparable $20,700 at SNY’s dispersal of the