IMAGE DETAILS

Bukhara suzani, central Asia, mid 19th century. 1.55 x 2.14m. SLO, lot 63. Est: £10-15,000

| Click to enlarge

18 April 2005

The end of April brings the London sales, with Spring in the air, and  Passover imminent (never a date to be cavalierly ignored when scheduling oriental carpet sales).

The London rug auction market, particularly for collectors' rugs, has been dominated by William Robinson's carpet department at Christie's for several years now, while Sotheby's has been in the wars with frequent changes of personnel, venue and marketing strategy. Bonhams (which consumed Phillips almost four years ago) has made little impact on the overall balance, and Christie's South Kensington, at least for rugs, remains a lower-end law unto itself. CSK also remains a good place to shop for antique textiles.

This time, however, it seems that old-hand Jacqueline Coulter at Sotheby's, in the first sale that really has her stamp on it since her return from sothebys.com, may have done something towards redressing the balance on Wednesday 27th April, both through the adoption of a clever marketing device in the catalogue, teasing potential buyers with pictures of several of the lots as they might look in a fashionably minimal interior setting, and, more importantly, by securing the consignment of one or more unnamed private collections of very good, mainly 19th century, Caucasian, Persian and Turkmen tribal and village rugs and Central Asian embroideries. While not all are new to the market, many have been effectively out of circulation for some time. And some carry estimates that look to be a bit on the high side (especially when converted to dollars with premiums added), as they tend to throughout the SLO catalogue, but if quality and authenticity are any kind of passport to success, the basic ingredients are there.

Christie's sale on Thursday 28th, by contrast, is distinguished more by its daunting size (316 lots) than by many truly memorable pieces, other than a recognisable parcel of carpets consigned by, or at least associated with, the Swedish dealer Peter Willborg. The sale is undoubtedly extremely efficiently commercial, with plenty of sensibly estimated carpets for (and from) the trade, but with less of direct interest to collectors.

At Bonhams on Tuesday 26th, the most curious consignment is a set of more than a hundred Jaipur Palace crested invitation cards of the 19th century, with watercolour images of carpets from the Amber Collection (lot 2, £8-10,000), similar to a smaller set sold for a substantial sum of money in the same rooms in October 2001. Last time around it emerged after the sale that there were well-justified doubts as to the whether the cards and the paintings on them were contemporaneous: it now seems most likely that the paintings postdate the actual cards by a considerable time, perhaps a century or more (HALI 122, pp.106-7). This time Bonhams have sensibly attributed the cards, which are certainly collectable in their own right, to any time in the 20th century, but it does make the estimate look pretty steep.

What follows is a rapid survey, by no means comprehensive or even-handed, of some potentially interesting lots to look out for during the sales. One caveat: we have not yet seen any of the carpets, rugs or textiles in the flesh, so the selection is based only on the published images in the sales catalogues received at the time of writing. With the predominance of cheap digital images over expensive film, these run the gamut of colour variance from lurid to dingy, and often lack clarity. Nor have we yet seen Bonham's Islamic catalogue, which may also contain textiles of interest.

The early or classical sector offers rather slim pickings, with no obvious record-breakers in sight. SLO begin with two elderly, rather tired, Mughal textiles, an 18th century painted cotton qanat panel (lot 1, £4-6,000) and a worn 17th century silk and metal thread velvet panel (lot 2, £10-15,000). The earliest item of note is a 7th/8th century Sogdian complex silk fragment with roundels depicting pairs of mandarin ducks (SLO, lot 64, £12-18,000). Another important early textile appears in Sotheby's Islamic sale (Wednesday 27th April), a fragment of 12th century Spanish red and white silk lampas, originally from the reliquary of St Librada in Sigüenza Cathedral (lot 73, £25-35,000).

In their Islamic sale, CLO have two 17th century Ottoman textiles, a large çatma cover with a staggered gilt ogival lattice design (lot 150. £60-80,000); and an embroidered bedcover or hanging with floral sprays enclose within leaf brackets (lot 151, £15-20,000). For serious collectors of Islamic memorabilia, CLO also have a group of mainly 19th and 20th century silk and silver-gilt calligraphic hangings from the mosques at Mecca and Medina, including some of the earliest dated examples. Among them are an external curtain for the door of the Ka'ba (lot 46, £250-350,000 pic); a border from a Ka'ba cover (lot 47, £100-150,000); an internal door curtain (lot 48, £50-70,000); part of a cover of the shrine of Abraham (lot 49, £50-80,000); a border from the shrine of Muhammad at Medina (lot 50, £80-100,000); a curtain from the same shrine (lot 51, £50-80,000), and a 16th-17th century calligraphic silk cover from the Tomb of the Prophet (lot 51A; £30-40,000).

CSK (Friday 29th) have an 18th century Gujarat embroidered export floorspread (lot 10, £10-15,000), as well as a marvellous-looking 17th century Ottoman silk and metal brocade panel with an ogival lattice design (lot 68, £12-15,000 pic), two good çatma (velvet) panels of similar age (lots 60, 61, £6-8,000 each), and a typical 17th century Azerbaijan figural embroidery, with much of the ground worn (lot 49, £4-6,000).

Older Turkish rugs include a fairly worn but unusual 17th century 'Transylvanian' double-niche floral rug with both field and border on a yellow ground (SLO, lot 47, £15-20,000); a worn and not especially colourful 17th century central Anatolian (Karapinar?) runner (CLO, lot 87, £15-25,000); and a very smart, clean, late 18th century Ladik prayer rug (SLO, lot 80, £7-10,000).

Pre-1800 Persian material includes a decent enough 17th century red-ground Esfahan carpet, worn but essentially complete (CLO, lot 150, £20-30,000); another Esfahan (SLO, lot 135, £25-40,000), cut and reduced to square format; a blitzed silk 'Polonaise' with no visible pattern remaining (SLO, lot 67, £6-8,000); a prettily coloured but very worn corner of a lattice field Kerman 'vase' carpet (lot 147, £4-6,000); and the very handsome and richly coloured Martin-Lamm-Willborg 18th century northwest Persian palmette and cloudband carpet (CLO, lot 152, £15-20,000).

Older material of note is rounded out by two quite good, albeit typically worn, Spanish Alcaraz rugs (CLO, lots 88 and 89, £15-20,000 and £25-35,000); a Kangxi period Ningxia carpet with an allover 'longevity' design (SLO, lot 130, £20-30,000); and an 18th century Kashgar silk carpet with bats on a key design field (CLO, lot 50, £30-50,000), chosen for the catalogue cover image.

The quality of 19th century Caucasian rugs in these sales, particularly at Sotheby's, is higher than we have seen in London for some time. Bonhams have a quirky Sevan Kazak on which the pan-Turkic kochanak border switches to a white-ground 'crab' design at the lower end of the field (lot 55, which looks inexpensive at £3,500-4,500). By contrast, another Sevan (lot 27, £20-25,000) among the consignments at Sothebys, even though of superior quality, looks dear in a bargain-hunter's market. Two handsome Borjalus of different design (lots 9, 16) are estimated at £15-20,000 and £12-18,000 respectively; there is a conventional high quality 'pinwheel' Kazak (lot 26, £15-20,000), and a rare green-ground single column 'tree' Kazak (lot 22, £6-9,000), as well as a standard Karachov (lot 5, £6-8,000), and a white-ground St Andrew's Cross Zeikhur (lot 21, £6-8,000). SLO also have a very good Caucasian flatweave, (lot 8, £8-12,000) a zili, not a "verneh".

Christie's have a desirable type of Kazak with a white-ground rectangular medallion flanked above and below by four Memling-güls (lot 29, £6-8,000 pic), as well as the ex-Burns Collection dragon sumakh (lot 22, £10-15,000), last seen in October 2001. Another old friend at auction is the Orient Stars speckled white ground east Caucasian star-medallion rug (CLO, lot 243, £4-6,000).

The poshest Turkmen rug is an old temirjin-göl Saryk main carpet (CLO, lot 71, £7-10,000), well-drawn, well-spaced, in good condition and with noble provenance. It should, given the continuing robustness of this corner of the market, prove accessibly priced. At Sotheby's, a good quality, complete, standard design, Tekke main carpet (lot 50, £10-15,000), and a Saryk kejebe design trapping with masses of corroded pink silk (lot 53, £7-9,000), both look a little expensive in comparison.

Both Sotheby's and CSK have a number of suzanis, of which the most striking, and priciest, is a Bukhara embroidery (SLO, lot 63, £10-15,000) with a densely decorated field of riotously colourful small blossoms. Others from the same collection include another Bukhara (lot 60, £4-6,000); a lattice-field Nurata (lot 61, £5-8,000); and a Shahrisyabz (lot 62, £4-6,000). Another unusual Shahrisyabz piece (SLO, lot 40, £6-8,000) is in bohça size and format, with a powerful quincunx design. The best of the CSK pieces is another Nurata, with the typical flowering shrubs in the centre and corners (lot 122, £4-6,000).

Sotheby's private collections have yielded several good quality Persian tribal rugs, including no fewer than six good Qashqa'is. Two have central medallion designs (lot 68, probably underestimated at £4-6,000, silk-wefted, with classic medallion and pendants on a yellow herati field; and lot 79, £7-10,000), as well as a millefleurs prayer rug (lot 75, £7-10,000) and three others (lots 76, 77 & 78: £5-7,000, £4-5,000 & £5-7,000 respectively), as well as two excellent, good condition and complete Qashqa'i double bags (lots 71 & 72; £3,500-4,500 & £2-3,000). There is the ex-Toms Collection white-ground Farahan medallion rug (lot 73, £7-9,000), a superior boteh-field Sehna prayer kilim (lot 23, £10-15,000), and even what looks to be a very fine Khorasan Baluch bag face (lot 56, £600-800).

For collectors of Judaica, Sotheby's have a small signed Bezalel rug with a calligraphic cartouche border (lot 83, £4-6,000), and a pretty pastel-coloured inscribed Marvadiah carpet with a northwest Persian shrub-lattice design (lot 84, £6-8,000). And for fans of fine silk Kum Kapi weaving, there is an extremely delicate signed Zareh allover palmette and vine design rug (SLO, lot 99, £40-60,000) as well as three lesser Istanbul Armenian masterworkshop rugs (lots 95, 96 & 98; £10-15,000, £15-20,000 & £8-12,000). Other highly individual pieces from the edge of the carpet-weaving world include a large, superbly decorative, fully provenanced Donegal Art Deco carpet  (SLO, lot 128, 10-15,000) and a Voysey-designed Liberty's Donegal Donnemara carpet (SLO, lot 143, £10-15,000).

For the decorative c arpet buyer there are numerous carpets that look buyable spread around the three rooms. Bonhams have a number of northwest Persian carpets, the best looking of which are two similarly sized 'Serapi' carpets (lot 156 & 176; £10-15,000 and £15-20,000) and a large and very pale Ushak (lot 182, £5-8,000). At SLO, three large allover design Ziegler carpets catch one's eye: lot 182 (4.90 x 7.58m, 16'1" x 24'10") from HSBC's Corporate Art Collection looks cheap at £12-18,000; an ivory ground carpet from a private collection, lot 184 (3.75 x 5.90m, 12'3" x 19'4"), looks fairly priced at £40-60,000; and lot 186, another pale ground carpet, (3.58 x 5.92m, 11'9" x 19'5") priced at £50-70,000 looks dear. Perhaps one of the most interesting decorative carpets is lot 190, a Lahore carpet cut and rejoined according to the catalogue, from a European private collection (6.70 x 10.35m, 22' x 33'11"), is a mid-19th century jail-made carpet using a repeat design that we know from a pashmina-pile carpet fragment in the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

A remarkable Bijar carpet at CLO, lot 135 (£16-22,000), is large and unique and perhaps not to every buyer's tastes since it has medallions and huge lions striding through the field.  CLO's best Sultanabad weaving is a white ground carpet, lot 300 (£35-50,000) which is smaller than the SLO pieces (3.70 x 5.10m, 12'2" x 16'9") but has a beautiful palmette design. CLO's other high price decorative are Ushaks (lot 250 a massive 10.87 x 6.56m 21'7" x 35'8", £25-35,000) and Indian carpets such as a Lahore carpet (lot 230, £30-40,000) and lot 200, a lightly coloured Agra (£35-50,000).