Page 123 - 2021 April 1, ART OF THE ISLAMIC AND Indian Worlds Including Oriental Rugs, Christie's London

THE PROPERTY OF SIR JOHN BECKWITH
■117
A KUBA KELLEH
EAST CAUCASUS, 18TH CENTURY
Of 'Harshang' design, overall wear, areas
of repair, reduced in length
15ft.5in. x 7ft.7in. (470cm. x 232cm.)
£5,000-8,000 US$7,100-11,000
€5,800-9,200
PROVENANCE:
Formerly in a Middle Eastern Collection
Christie's, London, 8 April 2014, lot 27
The drawing of this Kuba is exceptional
and relates very closely to the
Bruschettini carpet published as a
detail by Charles Grant Ellis in Early
Caucasian Carpets, Washington, 1975,
fig.13, p.19. The reciprocal blue and
white hooked leaf and palmett border
is an unusual and particularly attractive
design variant that is seen in a more
muted colour palette on a rug formerly
in the collection of William Henry
Wrench (1836-96), British Consul to
Ottoman Turkey, now in the collection
of the V&A Museum, London (acc.
no. 361-1897) and whose pair was
in the Robert Calatchi collection in
Paris, (Michael Franses and Robert
Pinner, "The Caucasian Collection", in
"Caucasian Rugs in the Victoria and
Albert Museum", HALI 3/2 (1980)
pp.95-115: fig.20).

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