An Endangered Species:Dragons

There can be no worst expression in our society than the epithet"late".-"Arrived late","late to pay","my late grandmother",etc.Connotations of slowness,weariness and tardiness are implicit.With carpets,the inference is usually that of creative exhaustion,but some examples seem to have gathered themselves at the end of a long reign for one last explosive burst.

Christie`s sold such an item on April the 24th,2012,in London.

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The Hali APG (H.172-117)rightly draws attention to the Grote-Hasenbalg piece

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whilst forgetting the Burrell Collection.

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Two examples mentioned by Serare Yetkin,one of which was published in the Istanbul ICOC Catalogue

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and a carpet once in the possession of Anglo-Persian London,which has been published at least ten times(why?)

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The group is characterised by a meander border,and dragons which have been reduced to squiggly snakes.One last example,in which the dragons valiantly attempt a return to form,was in the possession of Udo Langauer

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A group of dragon carpets whose Gestalt has been based on Sumakh carpets,although hardly contemporary with the above mentioned,can be included here

7-RB 38-126

The Hali APG for the above piece is misleading,as half the pieces mentioned do not really withstand a critical assignment to the Sumakh-inspired group(Hali 70-140)

It was presumably modelled on such a Sumakh

8-Lefevre 26.11.1976

Rippon Boswell is clearly the place to sell such things,having had 3 in the last 21 years

9-RB 11 May 1991-143A

Described in Hali 58 as a Kurdish carpet,the Zadah Dragon rug comes close to the original in style and panache

10-RB 14 May 1994

The Jerrehian carpet could certainly give Christies 2012 example a run for the money

11-Sotheby`s 8.10 1999-46

A last member of this group,clearly well into the 19th century,was published by Schürmann in 1976

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Finally,if the greatest of all Dragon Sumakhs is the one most closely approximating its progenitor,then the award certainly goes to the carpet sold at Christies on 12th October 1989,-

13-see Hali 48-89

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Few examples of these types have survived.More will surely appear,sooner or later(oops!)

2012-Year of the Dragon

A Balkan Tale

An excellent exhibition of fotos portraying Ottoman life and architecture in the Balkans,available here:-

Balkan Tale

 

See especially the video section.

divan rugs

The auction report(Hali 172-113) for a Turkish rug sold at Christies on 24.42012 makes interesting reading.

The piece was first sold at Brunk`s on 12.9.2012.

1-Brunks 2009

It appeared then at Christie`s in a spruced-up version.

2-Christies 2012

Described by Brunk`s as"reduced in the center throughout the length of the rug"this is in all probability a divan carpet made in two halves.A similar item,once in the author`s possession,demonstrates this,having had an original finish on the right-hand side.

3-Private collection

The Enjilas border is typical for this group.

4-Private Collection

5-Christie`s April 1989-1

6-Skinner`s 1990-later Rippon Boswell 1991

Two examples from the Kelez area,again as prayer rugs:

7-Weber Auction 1990

8-Manoyan

Sometimes the Enjilas border was simplified,removing the meander element:-

9-Tabahi,Storia-264

10-Lars Bonnevier-Rugrabbit

Why so many prayer rugs were made in two halves is a mystery.Perhaps larger looms were not available,or the weavers more often wove  kilims.Here a well-known "piece"from Franz Sailer after a simple montage:

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The Brunks/Christies example is at the end of a long continuum.Many of the "Transylvanian "carpets were probably woven in the Menderes valley area.Two types of Column rugs spring to mind,one with thick columns:-

13-Nagels,Auction 23-1101

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The other,more common,with Lotus Volute columns:-

14-Bausback 1978-71

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The group stands directly before(or side-by-side)the classical Konya prayer rugs with columns-which May Beattie infelicitously described as "coupled-columns"

15-Hali 36-104,Kinnebanian

One member of the Thin Column group seems to be losing its Spandrels:-

16-Sotheby`s 7.10.09-271

Thus paving the way for the absolute Siebenbürger reduction act,prayer rugs without mihrabs or spandrels:-

17-Batari-Vegh Layer

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mystery rug

Myers Collection

Published in 1930 by Koechlin and Migeon(Oriental Art,plate LXXXII)this small silk fragment with animal design was described as"the oldest specimen of carpet known with the exception of the small piece with Cufic inscriptions from the excavations at Fostat"Collection G.H Myers,Washington.Size 27.5 x 13.75 ins(70 x 35 cms)
The carpet is now in the Cleveland Museum of Art,described as from "Rayy,Persia"

Gift of Milton Girod-Nr.1988.243

Postscript 4 April 2023:

The carpet was returned by Myers to the seller Paul Mallon,after the admonitions of Maurice Dimand,who considered it a fake.Mallon`s stepson Milton Girod-Mallon donated it to the Cleveland Museum of Art,where it still slumbers,considered for a long time to be a 15th century Persian rug.

After careful dye analysis in 2018 the rug was proven to be a later example containing dyes which were first invented in the late 19th century.

Photos of the rug`s back on the Cleveland website reveal it to possess a structure not unlike Tibetan carpets,positing an origin somewhere in Central-Asia (Uzbek Julkhyr carpets also employ such a technique)It probably has a Persian knot.

If it is a fake the question is:of what?

 Cleveland Museum of Art

Forensic Dye Analysis

American Collector`s Habitat

In 1968 Fortune Magazine interviewed a leading group of carpet collectors,complete with at-home fotos,for their article"Flying High on Magic Carpets"(sic)

1-Alvin Pearson

2-Christopher Reed

3-Dave Chapman

4-Arthur Jenkins

5-Walter Ames Compton

6-Russ Pickering

7-Ralph Yohe

8-Jerome Straka

9-Joseph McMullan

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Interesting Tekke Asmalyk

Just sold on ebay-

Tekke asmalyk

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Appears to be an unknown type of Tekke Asmalyk,probably not very old,but interesting.The same vendor also sold(pre-sale) a Tekke Kapunuk fragment:-

Tekke Kapunuk frags

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Arabachi Chovals at Rippon Boswell

Rippon Boswell`s auction on May 19, 2012 featured three Arabachi items,in itself a rare event.

Arabachi chovals can be easily categorised.The paucity of known examples is helpful in this respect.

First the classical "Tekkoid gul" group:-

 Tree Halo Elem

1-Rippon Boswell 19.05.12-205,sold for 950 euro

The author can well remember struggling to restore the vertical hole in the centre of this completely worn terrain,somewhere in the early `80`s.

2-formerly Hoffmeister

Without Elem

At least seven pieces have survived without Elems.Probably they were of the Tree-Halo type,as this is the most common Elem design.Describing the Arabachi Gul in his article(in Hali 96),Michael Rothberg omits to depict the Rhombus form in the centre of the Guls,actually the distinctive characteristic of the Arabachi.Fifteen examples without Rhombus are illustrated here,thirty five with.

3-Without and with Rhombus  

A number of examples omit this diamond-shaped motif,including all of the examples in the group without Elems-which also includes the famous Ballard piece from the MET.This should not be taken as a sign of great age or archaic quality, etc.,as at least one piece is known without the Rhombus motif and  with a synthetic dye.Instead of the Ballard piece,Nr.20 from Hans Sienknecht`s book has been chosen to illustrate this group.

4-HCS Collection-Nr.15

The silhouetted lateral minor guls are an elegant and rare touch seen also on the wonderful piece of Toni Woger,now in the Völkerkunde Museum,Munich.The drawing is more successful than the Ballard,which is bunched on one side.

 With inner Kotchak border

There are ten pieces in this group,of which the best is undoubtedly that illustrated by Rothberg(from his own collection)This is also the group which features the most common use of a Kotchak Elem,later poached and simplified by the Chodor on their Ertmen Gul Chovals.

5-Rothberg Collection Hali 96-94

 Kotchak Elem

The smallest group,with two pieces known.A fragment from Shiv Sikri as illustration.

6-Shiv Sikri

And finally one piece from Seref Özen with a Saryk- influenced Elem:

7-Seref  Özen

Arabachi Chovals with 16 Guls.

There are at least 21 published examples.This can be divided through their border designs into two groups,those with and those lacking an inner Kotchak border,as seen on the one group in the aforementioned Classic cluster.

16 Gul Box-Flower Border.

The piece sold at Rippon Boswell`s is a good example,number three after the Bernheimer/Pinner/König and the fragment from Hans Sienknecht.

8-R & B 19.5.2012-230,sold for 1600 euro.

16 Gul with inner Kotchak Border

A very beautiful piece was published by Hali,and is one of the few examples with a virtually complete Elem.

9-Hali

A last group of three with the Schemle have been variously described as Chovals or Torbas.Three are known,one was at R&B`s and sold for 900 euro.

Schemle Gul Arabachis

10-Rippon Boswell 19.5.2012-111

Shown here are 62 chovals.This positions the Arabachi group one notch up on the rarity ladder,just above the Eagle-gul group.Of course,this is a fair sampling,and surely not a complete listing(Rothberg mentions one choval with 4 x 5 Guls)However,roughly speaking,there may have been a hundred examples published since the dawn of rug literature,making them very rare things indeed.

Hali Auction Price Guides:45-91;73-136;136-118;171-124;(Classic);136-118(16 Gul;)4/3-309(Schemle)

The buyer of the Historica Arabatchi Chuval was kind enough to submit a better photo of his purchase,which is a good note to end on.

11-See Blog entry 27 February 2012