A ÇINTAMANI PRAYER RUG SELENDI OR USHAK, WEST ANATOLIA, LATE 16TH OR EARLY 17TH CENTURY Price Realized £73,875 ($112,659) Estimate £60,000 - £80,000 ($91,200 - $121,600) Sale Information Christies SALE 1116 — ORIENTAL RUGS AND CARPETS 23 April 2013 London, King Street Lot 50 A ÇINTAMANI PRAYER RUG SELENDI OR USHAK, WEST ANATOLIA, LATE 16TH OR EARLY 17TH CENTURY Uneven overall wear, scattered small cobbled repairs and associated repiling, a few reweaves, sides partially rewoven, both ends rewoven along outer stripe 4ft.10in. x 3ft.2in. (147cm. x 97cm.) Provenance Paulette Goddard Remarque The Davide Halevim Collection, sold in these Rooms, 14 February 2001, lot 115 Pre-Lot Text Property from a Private Canadian Collector Literature Eberhart Herrmann, Asiatische Teppich und Textilkunst, IV, Munich, 1992, no.12, pp.34-5. Hali, Issue 108, Jan/Feb 2000, p.136 Lot Notes This elegant and spectacularly coloured cintamani prayer rug is a unique and particularly beautiful example from this rare group of carpets. Marino Dall'Oglio notes in his discussion of white ground Anatolian carpets that there are in total about thirty white ground cintamani rugs and carpets of which about twenty five are relatively small, similar in size to the present rug (Marino Dall'Oglio, 'White Ground Anatolian Carpets', in Robert Pinner and Walter Denny (ed.), Oriental Carpet and Textile Studies II, Carpets of the Mediterranean Countries, London, 1986, p.190-191). Of these thirty examples Dall'Oglio identifies two subcategories, the refined larger carpets and the smaller simpler rugs. The present example refuses to fit neatly into this classification as it has a finesse and sophistication that sets it apart from the other small format cintamani prayer rugs such as the Boehringer cintamani prayer rug sold in these Rooms, 24 April 2012, lot 101 (for a discussion of this group see Jürg Rageth, 'A Selendi Rug: An Addition to the Canon of White-Ground Cintamani Prayer Rugs', Hali, Issue 98, May 1998, pp.84-91). There are three published rugs that relate closely to the present example, two of which are white ground prayer rugs in the Museum of Turkish and Islamic Arts, Istanbul (illustrated in Hali, Issue 25, January 1985, p.42 and Nazan Ölçer, Turkish Carpets from the 13th to the 18th Centuries, exhibition catalogue, Istanbul, 1996, p.201). Both of these rugs have a comparably shaped mihrab, two waisted arabesque 'footprints' below and spandrels with similar monochrome scrolling open arabesques but both have a divergent border from the present example, a zig-zag Gothic border similar to the border of a number of 16th century Bird Ushak carpets and is typical of later 'kis' Ghiordes rugs. The third comparable rug is an abstracted or 'degenerate' cintamani prayer rug formerly in the Bernheimer collection, published Otto Bernheimer, Alte Teppiche des 16.-18. Jahrhunderts der Firma L. Bernheimer, Munich, 1959, pl.26. Although the three rugs are very similar to the present example, there is considerable difference in the drawing. The present example is very close to the first of the three mentioned above. The arabesques and floral motifs in the spandrels are carefully drawn and balanced and the two 'footprints' in the lower field are also very similarly delineated, whilst the second Turkish example reduces them to a much stiffer version. The design of the Bernheimer rug is likewise more angular and naive in its drawing than the present example, but the similarities are undeniable. The rug appears to bridge the divide between the two different groups of cintamani rugs, fusing the sophisticated design of the present example with the more archaic and tribal quality of the group of cintamani prayer rugs discussed by Jürg Rageth, op cit. The arabesque 'footprints' at the base of the mihrab are very similar to those on a multiple prayer rug which was made for the Selimye mosque in Edirne (Nazan Ölçer, op cit., p.174-5). The shape of the outline of those examples leaves little doubt that they are intended to be stylised feet, complete with pointed toes, in the same way that Caucasian prayer rugs often have stylised hands. The panels at the base of the present rug are slightly more stylised in shape but contain very comparable arabesques. Rather than just being markers where to place your feet, they are probably indications that you should pray in the footsteps of the Prophet. They could also be indications of the sandals of the Prophet, which were especially revered because the Prophet touched them on the apex of the Divine Throne during his heavenly journey. An interesting comparison can be made with a striking sixteenth century Safavid Persian miniature from the Falnama where the main feature of the composition is two feet filled with arabesques below an arch, completely dominating the people praying below (Falk, Toby (ed.), Treasures of Islam, exhibition catalogue, Geneva, 1985, no.63, p.97).