Anatolian Smyrna Wool Rug, ca. 1675
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GUEST:
My grandmother bought this in the early 1960s. She was in London at the Victoria and Albert Museum, and they were having some kind of exhibition of antiques, and she bought it from the museum. The receipt says it was made around 1700 in Asia Minor. It mentions Transylvania. The receipt is from a dealer, J.H. Dildarian, I guess, in New York.
APPRAISER:
Mm-hmm.
GUEST:
And there is a price of $3,500. And that was April 2, 1963. I assume my grandmother got this catalogue when she attended the exhibition.
APPRAISER:
The catalogue does cite Dildarian, the rug dealer in New York, as the exhibitor. And what most likely happens in those scenarios is that she saw it in London, contracted to buy it with the New York dealer, but the business transaction itself actually happened subsequently, out of his New York office. The rug is actually Turkish, was made circa 1650, really, to 1700. So the 1700 date given in the receipt and the catalogue is a little late. And it was made in Anatolia, which is the Asian land mass of Turkey. In today's lingo, it, it's called a Smyrna rug, mainly because they were imported through the city of Smyrna to the West. Throughout periods of time, academically, these have been called Asia Minor, they've been called Transylvanian. Today, we've kind of settled on just Turkish designation. It's fantastic. When you opened it today, my breath just was taken away. It's got perfect drawing, perfect color, and is actually of incredibly unusual coloration, in that it has this beautiful kind of saffron gold ground with the blue, white, and red floral motifs, which are called palmettes. Generally, rugs of this type are on a red ground with the yellow enclosed within the floral motifs, as opposed to being the main part of the ground. It's a wool knotted pile. It's on a wool foundation, as well. So it's 100% wool. When it started life, it was probably twice as long as it is today.
GUEST:
Oh.
APPRAISER:
It's hard to see, 'cause it's been very well done. But right across the stretch, across the rug there, the rug's been completely rewoven. It's been knotted together. Probably in the 18th century, 19th century, it was deteriorated enough that someone cut it in two and then joined it back together with that bit of reweave.
GUEST:
Oh.
APPRAISER:
Now, the $3,500 that your grandmother paid for it in 1963 was quite a hefty sum. If this piece came up for auction today, it would be conservatively estimated in the $35,000 to $50,000 range.
GUEST:
Wow.
APPRAISER:
And that's mainly due to this big reweave that goes across the rug.
GUEST:
Yeah.
APPRAISER:
If it was a complete rug, the estimate would probably be double that.
GUEST:
Wow.
APPRAISER:
And even with that repair, 'cause the rug is so rare on its own, that I wouldn't be surprised if it exceeded that $35,000 or $50,000 auction estimate.
GUEST:
Wow, that's fantastic.
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