U-4484 - Antique Turkish Oushak Rug

This hand woven town carpet displays an allover exploded Harshang design of ragged floating palmettes, ragged lozenges, torn medallions and symmetrized rough palmettes, all on a creamy beige field, supported by a variety of variously scaled simple palmettes, flowers and other devices. There is no organizing lattice, trellis or framework positioning the motives. All the elements move gently in the reserves available. There is no definite central line, but the palmettes are arranged in an implicit head-to-head manner. Coral, green, goldenrod and palest blue are among the accent tones. The rust ground, strip style border shows a reversing turtle pattern, supplemented by rosettes and boteh leaves. A narrow plain outermost border frames the whole. The rug has a faintly Mahal look and when it was made, Persian Mahals were the principal market competitors. The palette is mellow and there are no areas of dark blue or saturated red. The all-wool foundation indicates a date before WWI. Afterwards, in the Interwar period, Oushak carpets were done on cotton to better compete with Persian production. The condition is good, and the carpet is ready for the floor.