A STAR USHAK CARPET
WEST ANATOLIA, LATE 16TH CENTURY

Price Realized $28,680

Estimate
$30,000 - $40,000

Sale Information
Christies SALE 1358 —
EUROPEAN AND ORIENTAL CARPETS
30 June 2004
New York, Rockefeller Plaza

LOT NOTES
Lot Description
A STAR USHAK CARPET
West Anatolia, Late 16th Century
The rust-red field with polychrome angular palmette and flowering vine around diagonal rows of cusped octafoil stellar medallions containing interlaced golden yellow arabesques divided by similar lozenge panels within a rust-red border of angular palmettes linked by flowering vinery
Approximately 11 ft. 4 in. x 7 ft. 4 in. (345 cm. x 223 cm.)

Provenance
The Christopher Alexander Collection; Christie's New York, 8 April 1999, lot 103.

Literature
Alexander, Christopher: A Foreshadowing of 21st Century Art, the Color and Geometry of Very Early Turkish Carpets, New York and Oxford, 1993, pp. 71 (b/w detail) and 266-7.

Lot Notes
Warp: wool, ivory, Z2S, fine
Weft: wool, red, Z1; 2 shoots
Pile: wool, Z2, symmetric, depressed, H33 x V38 cm.

The present carpet is a classic 'star' Ushak type, with well proportioned star medallions and a border which is found on a number of other examples of the group (Christie's London, 16 October 1997, lot 23 and 11 February 1998, lot 90). This border is a simplified version of borders found on some Cariene carpets. It is interesting to note that the simpler of the two palmette types in the border started life as a tulip, showing a tendency to stylization which was dramatically reversed in the court styles a couple of decades later.