EAST CAUCASUS, MID 19TH CENTURY

The design on the present lot is derived from the ‘dragon’ carpets woven in the Karabagh region between the 16^th and 18^th centuries. Realised using a different weaving technique and many years after those early prototypes, soumac carpets like the present lot show an increasing abstraction of the design. A similar example to the present lot is published in Friedrich Spühler, Hans König and Martin Volkmann, Alte Orienttepiche, Munich, 1978, no.60, p.150. Both retain the lattice-like design of the original dragon carpets, though the white ‘dragons’ have morphed into serrated leaves, and the repertoire of small motifs in the field expanded to include animals and ‘s’ shapes. A further example with a slightly elongated design is published by Alberto Boralevi, Sumakh: Flat-woven carpets of the Caucasus, Florence, 1986, no.2, p.34. That example also has a border of stepped octagons against a yellow ground between two ivory rosette minor stripes, in common with the present lot.