AN EAGLE-GUL GROUP I CARPET, SOUTHWEST TURKESTAN

Michael Isberian Collection, Illinois

Private UK Collection

Rippon Boswell, Wiesbaden, 29 November 2014, lot 176

‘Rugs of Rare Beauty from Midwestern Collections’, Hali, Issue 171, March-April 2002, p. 49 (Preview of ACOR 6)

Hali, Issue 183, Spring 2015, p. 133

An important, early and exceptionally rare ‘Eagle-Gul Group I’ carpet.

The closest comparable example to this carpet is the one sold Rippon Boswell 20 May 2000, lot 143, also illustrated in Hali, Issue 110, July-August 2000, p. 111 and Issue 166, Winter 2010, p. 33 in the Preview of Stockholm ICOC, also Eagle-Gul Group I, and of very similar design. In the present lot this consists of stepped interlocking ‘arrowhead’ motifs, in shades of red, brown and blue or white, decorated with small flowering plants, bordered by thinner stripes of similar but much smaller interlocking stepped motifs. These are flanked by groups of five stripes, the central wider one with rosettes formed from ‘S’ motifs, flanked by pairs of very narrow stripes of interlocked ‘tuning fork’ motifs. Each stripe is separated from the next by an extremely fine dotted line. Motifs and colours slip and shift from stripe to stripe, creating an extraordinary shimmering surface tension. This combines with the fineness of the weave, silk wefting and lustrous wool to create of weaving of extraordinary visual and haptic power. The companion piece illustrated Hali 110 uses exactly the same sophisticated pattern scheme, varying only in the narrow stripes which flank the rows (or columns?) of rosette motifs, which there contain small diamonds, crosses and arrowheads, and in leaving some motifs, particularly noticeably when white, undecorated. A related younger example, though of much simplified design and not approaching the present lot in beauty, was illustrated by Schürmann in Central Asian Rugs, Frankfurt 1969, pl. 22, p. 98; he dated his to circa 1800 and ascribed it to ‘Yomud of the Ogurjalis’. Another piece, called ‘Tekke, 18^th century’ was published by Peter Bausback in Alte und antike orientalische Knüpfkunst, Mannheim 1980, p. 187, and a related carpet was advertised by Thomas Baker in ORR 12/1, Oct/Nov 1991, p. 5.

Whilst the stripes have been woven horizontally, there is some discussion over whether these pieces were intended to be used as hangings and with the stripes running vertically, although one is then faced with the question of whether the small plants grow up or down. What does become apparent looking at this lot ‘sideways’ as illustrated here, is a possible relationship between the design and ikat weavings.

In the same way that the term ‘Vase’ carpet has become associated with a specific carpet structure, although originally referring a motif found in some examples of the genre, the ‘Eagle-gul’ group is so called for a motif found in main carpets, which has subsequently been adopted to indicate specific structural characteristics of the group. Initially recorded in the early 20th century by Russian General A.A. Bogolyubov, he attributed these carpets to the Ogurjali tribe who subsequently merged with the Yomut, see Bogolyubov, A., Tapis de l'Asie Centrale, St Petersburg, Russia, 1908/9. Ulrich Schurmann also assigned them to the Yomut, and noted the similarity in ornament to Caucasian design - early Caucasian carpets incorporated large open palmettes not dissimilar to the Eagle gul. Rautenstengel, A.and V., and Azadi, S., Studien zur Teppich Cultur de Turkmen, Turkmen Main Carpets of Different Tribes with 'Eagle' - and Dyrnak-Gols, Hilden, 1990 proposed three groups for Eagle gul carpets, based on design and structural similarities. Group I and II are represented in this sale. The key structural differences are Group I has red wool and silk and brown wool wefting and a assymetric knot open to the left whereas Group II has brown wool and cotton wefting with an assymetric knot open to the right. Besides the Ogurjali, the Imreli have also been proposed as the weavers of these rugs, see Thompson, J., and Mackie, Turkmen, Tribal Carpets and Traditions, Washington DC, 1980, pp.134-144, revisited by Elena Tsareva in Turkmen Carpets, Masterpieces of Steppe Art from 16th to 19th Centuries: The Hoffmeister Collection, Stuttgart, 2011, pp.87-88). In the cataloguing of this lot in 2014 the Göklen tribe was proposed as the most likely. Notwithstanding the ongoing question of which tribal group or groups should be credited with this particular piece, it is undoubtedly a masterpiece of Turkman weaving.