SALE 5220 LOT 50
AN ANTIQUE BERGAMA PRAYER RUG
An antique Bergama prayer rug

Price Realized £1,063 ($1,766)

Sale Information
Christies SALE 5220 —
CHRISTIE'S INTERIORS
11 March 2014
London, South Kensington

Lot Description
An antique Bergama prayer rug
approx: 4ft. x 2ft.11in.(122cm. x 89cm.)

also seen at

Christies SALE 6435 —
ORIENTAL RUGS AND CARPETS
3 May 2001
London, King Street
 

as

A BERGAMA PRAYER RUG
WEST ANATOLIA, 18TH CENTURY

Price Realized £9,400 ($13,489)
Estimate
£3,000 - £4,000
($4,305 - $5,740)

Lot Description
A BERGAMA PRAYER RUG
West Anatolia, 18th Century
The shaded rust-red field with scattered flowerheads around a central geometric panel issuing angular vine containing a flowerhead centrepiece, the mihrab arch above containing hooked panels and flowerheads, in a shaded sea-blue border of stylised rosettes containing diamond-motifs between polychrome stylised vine meander and barber-pole stripes, restored
3ft.9in. x 2ft.11in. (114cm. x 89cm.)

Lot Notes
The re-entrant prayer rug design was one of the options produced in relatively small quantities through from the fifteenth century for at least four hundred years (see lot 65 for a late example). The present rug, while late in the sequence, is a most unusual variant on the type, having reversed the direction of one of the niches to provide a directional design. The central medallion however remains almost totally unchanged from the early sixteenth century original (Mills, John: "The Bellini, Keyhole or re-entrant Rugs", Hali 58, August 1991, pp.86-103, esp.pls. 19, 20, 26 and 29).