Christie's Oriental Rugs and Carpets
Tuesday 23 April 2013
8 King Street, St. James's, London

43
A LARGE KARABAGH KELLEH
SOUTH CAUCASUS, FIRST HALF 18TH CENTURY

LATE SAFAVID PERIOD

Of 'Blossom' design, overall uneven wear, some splitting at one end, a few holes, selvages frayed, some loss to each end, light surface dirt 20ft.9in. x 9ft.7in. (630cm x290cm.)
£20,000-30,000 US$31,000-45,000
ˆ23,000-34,000
 

This beautiful kelleh is very closely related to a carpet sold in these Rooms, 24 April 2012, lot 42, so much so that it seems likely they were produced in the same workshop. The drawing and wonderfully saturated colours are perhaps even more spectacular in the present carpet than the example sold in April, even with some light surface dirt. The kelleh belongs to a well-documented group of carpets that share the same field design, blue ground and yellow border. Comparable carpets are published in Charles Grant Ellis, Early Caucasian Rugs, Washington D.C., 1975, pl.18, pp.66-7, Serare Yetkin, Early Caucasian Carpets in Turkey vol.1, London, 1978, pl.59andE. Heinrich Kirchheirn et al, Orient Stars, A Carpet Collection, Stuttgart and London, 1993, no.74, p.140.