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19th century ‘Ersari’ prayer rug sold at Göteborgs Auktionsverk for €78,750

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30 October 2009

We like to believe that it is no coincidence that on Saturday 24 October 2009, two new advertisers in the autumn 2009 issue of HALI, Göteborgs Auktionsverk in Sweden, and Kaminski Auctions in Beverly, Massachusetts, achieved extraordinary prices at auction for two specific types of collectable Turkmen tribal weavings.

The sale in Gothenburg included an extremely pretty, delicately coloured 19th century ‘Ersari’ prayer rug (HALI 161, p.126), a previously unknown example of Ralph Kaffel’s rare ‘Beshir Type 1A’ (see HALI 151, online supplement). Closely related and by no means inferior to, although perhaps a little younger than, the much-published Dudin rug at the Russian Ethnographic Museum in St Petersburg, it far outstripped a cautious estimate of €12,000 to fetch a completely unexpected €78,750 ($118,125, including premiums). According to Ludwig Fredén Klenfeldt, who is in charge of rugs and carpets at the auction house, the rug was found on the floor in the estate of a local private collector, and was “nearly thrown out with the rubbish – no-one knew of its cultural and economical value”. After intense competition between three telephone bidders and a European dealer who had travelled to Sweden for the sale, it was knocked down in the room. The price more than doubles the previous mark for one of this larger extended family of white-ground Middle Amu Darya region prayer rugs, which was set in Wiesbaden back in November 1996 ($56,495, HALI 91, p.141).

Across the Atlantic in New England on the same day, Kaminski’s October estates auction (HALI 161, p.12) offered a group of oriental rugs, among them several smaller Turkmen pieces and some good-looking Caucasians. Star of the day was lot 49, a beautifully balanced and coloured classic Tekke six-gül torba, estimated at just $600-900, which soared to $15,525. This too, while not quite a world record for a Tekke torba of any design (that still belongs to another superb six-gül piece, from the so-called ‘Tent Band Collection’, sold at Sotheby’s in New York in December 1990 for $17,050, HALI 55, p.164), was well above public prices paid for such things in recent years, even including RB’s Robert Pinner sale in May 2004. It was bought in the saleroom by a Massachusetts collector, reportedly bidding against the international trade on the telephone.