What stands out at Austria Auction Company’s September auction?

Austria Auction Company’s first auction after the summer, when few people in Europe are thinking of wool, is on 5 September. Fine Antique Oriental Rugs 44 has 214 lots and a number of interesting features. Firstly, there are pieces from the estate of the late, great Turkmen collector Hans Sienkneckt, including a group of interesting Yomut family carpets, all with unique features that attracted Sienkneckt; the P-Chodor carpet, lot 150 is prime example of this. But perhaps the carpet with the widest appeal is lot 1, a Beshir carpet dating from the early 19th century, with an unusual medallion design that combines the so-called snake design with a floral element.

Another interesting area is a group of saddle rugs and Chinese throne covers, alongside a group of tiger rugs that run the gamut from the formal abstraction of lot 15 on cotton warp, to an older and more rural rendering in lot 22 on a wool foundation, through to lot 16, a 20th-century Tibetan pictorial version with two coy-looking tigers prancing among bamboo, and a perhaps unique Ningxia version, lot 28, with a very Western tiger posing on an empty ground as if an odalisque lounging in an artist’s studio.

There is also a strong offering of Anatolian rugs and kilims, many of the latter with enticing low estimates: just the moment when the eagle-eyed might pick up a bargain. Of particular note is lot 75, a very colourful two-panel Konya kilim. In terms of rugs, there is a group of prayer rugs, including a classic but worn 18th-century Ghiordes prayer rug, lot 51, and a mid-19th-century Kirshehir prayer rug, lot 63. But to our eye the most interesting Anatolian rug is lot 54, described as an Armenian Anatolian dragon rug. Dating from the first half of the 19th century, these rugs are attributed to Ghiordes and Kula, the former being our preferred attribution. This rug has real character and many small filler elements that enhance the curled leaf and medallion designs. However, the clarity of the drawing shows why the curious description as a dragon rug seems apt, as the sickle leaves and central medallion call to mind 18th-century Karabagh carpets.