12' x 15'6" (366cm x 472cm) Turkey, Western Anatolia: Circa 1900 Knotted pile: wool
$29,500$19,500 SALE
A beautiful antique carpet from the prolific Oushak region in Western Turkey, featuring a well-known design, at least since the seventeenth century. The design is often referred to as "Smyrna" in the carpet trade, the ancient name of the city of Izmir, an important commercial port in the Eastern Mediterranean since antiquity. Since the Renaissance, many Oushak carpets passed through the port of Smyrna on their way to European destinations, from the Venetian Republic to Henry VIII's England.
Carpets like this present example would, in fact, be very familiar in English country houses, circa 1900. This is a very nice example, with generous proportions and in near perfect state of preservation.
