A KAZAK RUG, WEST CAUCASUS

Christies London, 8 April 2014, lot 67

The proportions and the wide ivory ground border of this piece are unusual; squarish rugs are not often seen. Ulrich Schürmann, in Caucasian Rugs, Munich, 1965, pl.44, pp.146-47, illustrated a Gendje rug fragment with a similar hooked medallion. The pattern of the central lozenge, an interpretation of the classical cruciform medallion with four radiating palmettes, is repeated in the four secondary corner medallions of this charming rug.