UZBEKISTAN, CIRCA 1800

There are a number of Beshir prayer rugs with this general format, the wide ivory arch extending over the inner guard stripe. A closely related example is in the Textile Museum, Washington (Prayer Rugs, exhibition catalogue, Washington D.C., 1974, pl.XXXIX), one in the Madavask Collection was exhibited in Los Angeles in 2000 (Hali 111, June-July 2000, p.121), one was in an old Swedish Collection (Maj Sterner, Orientens Mattor och Deras Vard, Stockholm, 1944, pl.92, p.148), one was exhibited by Franz Bausback in 1983 (The Old and Antique Oriental Art of Weaving, Mannheim, 1983, pp.147-149), while others have been sold at auction by Rippon Boswell, London, (13 June 1983, lot 35), Rippon Boswell, Wiesbaden (16 November 1996, lot 141) and Sotheby's, New York (30 April 1983, lot 136). Compared to all these examples the present rug is more openly drawn, with unusually large floral sprays in the red field areas. The colours are also lighter than in most, particularly the green tone which means that the main border almost gives the impression of a spiralling ribbon design due to the different tonalities of the colours. The wool used here is very soft, and the range of colours large. Among the entire group of Beshir prayer rugs of this form it is probably the earliest.