Bausback Double-Niche Carpet
Turkey, Western Anatolia, Ushak region, 1650-1750
Knotted wool pile on wool foundation
98 1/2 x 64 1/2 in. (250.19 x 163.83 cm)
Gift of the 2004 Collectors Committee (M.2004.32)

Los Angeles County Museum of Art
Provenance: Bausback, Mannheim a private Austrian collection; and Michael Franses, London; Dennis Dodds

Two other rugs, dated to the 16th-17th century and showing a comparable drawing style and nearly identical composition of the central medallion as well as the same wide range of saturated dyes, are in European collections. All three exhibit particularly colorful and elaborately rendered 'lappets' in the end panels. These three carpets may be from the same villade or atelier, each rendered with a different design variation with this medallion as a central feature. Connected blossoms that surround the central medallion are consistent with a particular Transylvanian carpet style, including 17th century Turkish rugs in Saxon churches. Other elements, including identical narrow guard stripes that flank the main palmette border, are found in examples of 16th-17th century carpets in the Vakiflar and Turkish and Islamic Art Museums. The evidence is clear that identical secondary borders, such as these, are a common feature in early Turkish carpets. This palmette border is found in a rare Ushak "Lotto" carpet dated to the second half of the 16th century; see Antique Ottoman Rugs in Transylvania; ed. by Stefano Ionescu; cat. 16, p. 90, 2004.