This rug is the only piece in my collection which I did not choose myself. It was in fact purchased by an intermediary who was going out to Turkey for the summer and counted a rug seller from Konya among her acquaintance. So I gave her the princely sum of £50 (this was a dozen or so years ago, but even so…) and said: get me the best you can for the money. She said that when she got into the warehouse, this was the rug she saw immediately. When she informed her host, he looked a bit sick. But Turkish men are nothing if not gallant, and I guess he could not resist the urge to, as it were, ride to the rescue of the damsel in distress - in the form of the offer of this piece for the paltry sum of £50. I’ve been told it dates from around the 1920s. It’s quite narrow, and for a long time I thought it was a divan rug, and its excellent condition was partly due to it having been sat, rather than walked on. However, I have it on the authority of another Turkish rug merchant that this is not necessarily the case - that in fact there are divan rugs which are actually woven asymmetrically - so that the side to the wall is not patterned the same as the one facing the room, though I have never seen any such rug.
This has undergone a lot of fading. The colours are extraordinarily vivid on the underside. I’ve always had it on the wall until recently, but have now converted a padded box into a divan, and placed this rug on top to sit on. (Here it has been layed on the floor to be photographed) There are four older rugs in this room (meaning not modern) - three Turkish and one Moroccan. The only one I’ve featured so far is the Cal (art objects 23); the other two are coming soon, Insallah. I must say that these rugs set a wonderful tone to the room, which is the one where we do our card reading. The uzbek square (number 30) is on the table, the stone Buddha (number 26) on a shelf, a big Chinese dragon embroidery on one wall and the afghan cloth (number 6) opposite it. The smaller framed Chinese dragon embroidery (number 22) and a watercolour (my only original painting) complete the wall features; there is also a small antique Chinese cabinet with shelves, and an antique Chinese decorated box. On the pine blanket box (number 16) is a new textile piece - English!! - which I have recently acquired for a song and intend to feature soon. The dominant colours of the room are soft oranges, golds and light greens. One of these days, I should post a couple of shots of the whole thing.
