PROPERTY FROM THE COLLECTION OF DANIELE GHIGO
Lot 50

A LARGE STAR USHAK CARPET
WEST ANATOLIA, FIRST HALF 16TH CENTURY
Extensively restored throughout. Good pile, considerable restoration executed in at least two
periods.
15ft.10in. x 8ft.9in. (480cm. x 265cm.)
£80,000-120,000 US$120,000-180,000
€90,000-130,000

One of the most iconic of all carpet designs, it is not hard to see why the ‘star’ design woven in
Ushak has such enduring appeal. This is a particularly fine early example with wonderful colours and
drawing. The earliest Star Ushaks are in keeping with early Turkish design traditions (Tapis Present
de L’Orient A L’Occident, Exhibition catalogue, Paris, 1989, p.94) with a strong allusion to an infinite
repeat, and as such the design can be found in many differently proportioned versions. It is one of
the earliest Ottoman carpets to have been depicted in a European context. The painter Paris Bordone
depicted a Star Ushak under the throne of a Venetian Doge in his 1534 painting Fisherman Presenting
a Ring to the Doge Gradenigo, (Gallerie dell’Accademia, Venice) and at least three paintings of the
English King Henry VIII (r.1509-1547) by Hans Holbein and Hans Eworth show him standing on carpets
of this design (‘Portraits of King Henry VIII’, Hali, Vol.3 no.3, pp.176-181). The present example is
one of the most desirable versions of the design with beautifully drawn eight-lobed medallions and
diamond lozenges. The carpet is very similar to the Star Ushak in the Metropolitan Museum of Art,
formerly in the McMullan Collection, (M.S. Dimand and Jean Mailey, Oriental Rugs in the Metropolitan
Museum of Art, New York, 1973, fig.163, p.152).


Christies LONDON
Oriental Rugs and Carpets
Tuesday 2 October 2012
PROPERTY FROM
The Collection of Daniele Ghigo and various sources