About the Antique Rugs of the Future Project

 Sheep Breeds of Azerbaijan

 Shearing, Sorting, Washing, Carding, Spinning

 "The advantages of handspun yarn to machine spun yarn"

 Rediscovery of Ancient Natural Dyes		 Our Natural Dyestuffs

 Mordants

 Difference between synthetically and naturally dyed rugs

 Weaving and Finishing Steps

 Galleries of ARFP Caucasian Azerbaijani Rugs
 


back to "Antique Ottoman "Transylvanian" rugs" main page

 

"Transylvanian" rug, Western Turkey, second half 17th century, Ottoman Empire. published in Antique Oriental Carpets from Austrian Collections, exhibition catalogue, Vienna, 1983, no.9. Later seen at Christie's. Size: 5ft.10in. x 4ft.(178cm. x 122cm.). Formerly Cittone Collection, Milan

The mottled brick-red field with twin columns supporting a triple ivory arch with pendant floral sprays containing flowerheads and bold interlocking curved leaves, the buff border with dense triangular motifs around elongated hexagonal polychrome panels containing radiating floral sprays between golden yellow and charcoal-grey angular meander and minor barber-pole stripes, ends rewoven, even wear, scattered old repairs

 

 

 
This rug is of a well-known type which is one of the few that can be identified with some confidence in texts of the period. The dowry for Klára Tasi when she married Peter Szentiváni in 1650 included "two small red column Turkish rugs for table covers" There are a number of comparable examples including ones in the Museum of Applied Arts, Budapest (Batári, Ferenc: Ottoman Turkish Carpets, Budapest, 1994.no.68; Végh, Gyula and Layer, Károly: Turkish Rugs in Transylvania, Fishguard, no.23) and in the Black Church, Braov (Kertesz-Badrus, Andrei: Trkische Teppiche in Siebenbrgen, Bucharest, 1985, no.21).