Early Yellow-Ground Yastik
86 x 56 cm (2' 10" x 1' 10")
Turkey, 17th century
Condition: very good according to age, full pile, both ends restored, selvages rebound, scattered small reweaves
Warp: wool, weft: wool, pile: wool and silk

Stylized pomegranate trees with flowers and fruits grow on a deep saffron-yellow ground, whereby parts were knotted in pale purple silk. At both ends are seven mihrabs, whose inner fields are covered with flowering plants, alternately in madder and walnut dyed wool executed and overgrown.

The borders consist of simple, narrow serrated patterns. There is apparently no comparable piece in literature to this famous rug from the F. R. Martin collection in Sweden (see F. R. Martin: "A History of Oriental Carpets before 1800", London 1908, p. 116).

In his opinion, the unusual design, which is undoubtedly of Central Asian origin and came to the West along the Silk Road, could have been derived from earlier velvet upholstered rugs.

This much-publicized carpet (among others as cover picture Weltkunst, 54th year, no. 8, 1984) came up for auction at Sotheby's London (lot 57) on October 12th 1983 from the possession of Carl Johan Lamm, Stockholm, and was purchased by Peter Bausback, Mannheim.