Davide Halevim: Magnificent Carpets and Tapestries, Christie's London, February 14, 2001, Lot 10♔6

This unusual village workshop rug blends elements from several of the classical rug types of the Oushak region. The indented shaped field is familiar not only from ‘small medallion’ rugs, but also ‘Transylvanian’ rugs, see for example lot 258 in this sale (which also has additional hooked decoration on the shaped reserve); the single lamp of the ‘small medallion’ prototypes has here multiplied into several box-like ornaments with dangling ‘chains’ and the spandrel and medallion arabesques of earlier rugs are heavily stylised. The border however remains close to its antecedents: compare the border of the ‘Lotto’ rug fragment from the Christopher Alexander Collection, sold Sotheby’s London, 7 November 2017, lot 51 and illustrated in Alexander, C., A Foreshadowing of 21st Century Art,ꩲ New Y💟ork and Oxford, 1993, p. 245 & ill. pp. 51, 60 & 245.