Austria Auction Company’s first auction after the summer takes place on 5 September. Fine Antique Oriental Rugs 44 comprises 214 lots and has a number of interesting features. First among these are pieces from the estate of the late, great Turkmen collector Hans Sienkneckt, including a group of Yomut family carpets, each with distinctive features that attracted Sienkneckt’s attention. The P-Chodor carpet, Lot 150, is a prime example.
Perhaps the carpet with the widest appeal, however, is Lot 1, an early 19th-century Beshir carpet with an unusual medallion design combining the so-called snake motif with a floral element.
Early Exceptional Ersari Beshir. Turkmenistan, first half 19th century. 318 x 133 cm (10'5" x 4'4"). Austria Auction Company, 5 September 2026, lot 12, est. €4-6,000.
Early P-Chodor main carpet. Turkmenistan, first half 19th century. 272 x 164 cm (8'11" x 5'5"). Austria Auction Company, 5 September 2026, lot 150, est. €4-6,000.
Another interesting section is the group of saddle rugs and Chinese throne covers, alongside a selection of tiger rugs that span a remarkable range of styles. These include the formal abstraction of Lot 15, woven on a cotton warp; the older, more rural rendering of Lot 22, on a wool foundation; and Lot 16, a 20th-century Tibetan pictorial version depicting two coy-looking tigers prancing among bamboo. Perhaps the most unusual is Lot 28, a seemingly unique Ningxia version in which a distinctly Western-looking tiger poses on an empty ground, like an odalisque lounging in an artist’s studio.
