AUCTION PRICE GUIDE

Safavid predecessors yet with a more contemporary decorative sensibility. On the rare occasions, as here, when the arabesque is rendered in silk on an ivory ground, its even flow and elegance are a guarantee of success. The fine weave allows an exceptionally precise execution of the pattern, which is enhanced by the rug’s immaculate condition. Note the relationship between the border design and that seen on the Schürmann ‘Shiraz’ carpet sold at Nagel on 8 November2005. Pieces of this quality seldom appear at auction, so it is no surprise that in a market ready to paya premium for ‘best of type’, it sold well.

| Heriz Carpet Late 19th century 5.04 x 7.01m (16'6" x 23'0") Christie’s London 13 October 2005, lot 225 Est: £25-35,000 Sold for: £54,000 ($94,500) Attributed by Christie’s to Karaja, this is an oversize Heriz of the ‘Serapi’ type with just about every attribute that one desires in such a carpet: a bold, well-spaced, yellow medallion, which contrasts well with the smaller shield-like devices that surround it on the madder red ground, light blue spandrels, and a broad sky-blue border. In recent years, we have not seen many such ‘power’ carpets fetch sums at this level at auction, where generally more understated decorative pieces have been favoured. But given its great size as well as its very good condition, the high price should not be a surprise.

118 I HALI 144

soft indigo, and the ivory background. Good condition, excellent proportions and good provenance all contributed to selling this Tabriz for five times its conservative estimate.

| Bakhshaish Rug Second half 19th century 1.91 x 2.11m (6'3" x 6'11") Bonhams Knightsbridge 11 October 2005, lot 59 Est: £600-800 Sold for: £11,400 ($19,950) Miscatalogued as Farahan and hugely underestimated, this small, almost square, carpet belongs to a rare group of northwest Persian Bakhshaish weavings with ivory fields decorated with large scale angular arabesques,framed by widely spaced ivory-ground cloudband and palmette borders. Until now, only larger format pieces were known, such as Herrmann, SOT V, pl.52. Carpets of this desirable design type are not common at auction and are usually keenly contested.

| Sehna Saddle Cover Dated 1287 AH (1870 AD ) 0.99 x 0.95m (3'3" x 3'1") Nagel, Stuttgart 8 November 2005, lot 129 Est: €1,000 Sold for: €3,192 ($3,865) A fine, if rather worn, west Persian Kurdish saddle cover, with largely illegible inscription panels above and below in which the word ‘Sanandaj’ (Sehna) can be read. A lovingly rendered group of mother and two children holding hands appear at the centre of the plain indigo upper field. Not expensive for a genuine collector’s piece.

| Tabriz Carpet (detail) Circa 1880 4.52 x 6.38m (14'10" x 20'11") Sotheby”s New York, Safra Collection 3 November 2005, lot 418 Est: $30-40,000 Sold for: $192,000 The filigree effect of the small scale, allover herati pattern on this oversize Tabriz carpet, which also graced the inside cover of the sale catalogue, gave a feeling of subtle tranquility quite unlike the sensation of congestion we usually associate with this pattern. Here, there is a very delicate colour contrast between the pattern, which is punctuated by a very

| Petag Tabriz Carpet First quarter 20th century 2.36 x 3.35m (7'9" x 11'0") Christie’s London 13 October 2005, lot 79 Est: £4-6,000 Sold for: £7,800 ($13,650) An early 20th century Tabriz almost identical to one sold in the same rooms in April 2002 for $15,595 (HALI 123, p.110). Both carpets, manufactured for export by the German firm Petag, are fairly faithful copies of a well-known late classical Caucasian/ Armenian carpet from the

Habsburg Collection, now in the MAK, Vienna (Or294), which was first published in 1892 by the KK Österreichisches Handelsmuseum, then by F.R. Martin in 1908, and by Sarre & Trenkwald in the 1920s.

| Afshar Rug Second half 19th century 1.14 x 1.47m (3'9" x 4'10") Christie’s London 13 October 2005, lot 55 Est: £7-9,000 Sold for: £8,400 ($14,700) Not a bargain, but nevertheless a fair price for a very good quality and nicely coloured Kerman region blue-ground Afshar rug, in excellent condition, including the flatwoven ends. The geometricised repeatof flowering plants is particularlynicely rendered, and the colours are excellent.

| ‘Mohtashem’ Kashan Carpet (detail) Circa 1900 5.26 x 8.30m (17'3" x 27'3") Sotheby’s New York, Safra Collection 3 November 2005, lot 436 Est: $60-80,000 Sold for: $192,000 So-called ‘Mohtashem’ Kashans are a market phenomenon that operates on its own internal logic. Irrespectiveof trends in colour and design, Mohtashems have such a profoundly sensuous quality with their fine, velvety kurkwool that buyersare irresistibly drawn to them. Although

relatively dark in palette, with a busy allover design of spiralling branches with palmettes, the excellent condition of the present lot, coupled with its large dimensions, were winning factors that carried it far above estimate to the second highest price for the type at auction we have on record. The most expensive was a carpet with an allover floral repeat design at CNY in December 2003, which fetched a massive $287,500 (HALI 133, p.124). In addition, since 1999, a total of six Mohtashems, including the present and previous lots in the Safra sale, have passed the $100,000 mark at auction in New York. Of those, two have medallion and four have allover repeat designs.

CENTRAL ASIA

| Ersari Turkmen Chuval First half 19th century 1.50 x 1.00m (4'11" x 3'3") Sotheby’s, London 12 October 2005, lot 6 Est: £3-5,000 Sold for: £22,800 ($39,900) Heightened appreciation of Middle Amu Darya weavings recently has resulted in sharply increased prices for ‘A’ pieces, but while this ‘ikat’-design “Ersari” chuval is arguably a ‘best of type’, it set an auction record for the group by a huge margin. It is quite similar to one from the Mark Whiting Collection offered for sale by Richard Purdon in Burford at an asking price of £14,500 (HALI 111, p.112). Other closely related examples include a fragment in the Sienknecht Collection (Collection HCS, pl.40); RB, 15 May 1999, lot 48, $5,210 (HALI 106, p.139); Skinner, 29 April 2000, lot 28; Pinner & Eiland, Between the Black Desert and the Red, pl.63, in the Wieder