Upcoming Austria Auction Company Sale

[View this email in your browser]( [Austria Auction Company]( Fine Antique Oriental Rugs XXXIII Auction: 10 June 2023, 4pm CEST Preview: 7–9 June 11am-5pm CEST, 10 June 11am-4pm CEST Palais Breuner, Singerstrasse 16, Vienna [Online Live Bidding]( Udo Langauer’s Austria Auction Company will hold its 'Fine Antique Oriental Rugs XXXIII' sale on 10 June 2023 at 4pm CEST at its Palais Breuner salerooms in Vienna. There will be many options for the well-informed bidder within a broad selection of 165 antique rugs, alongside 39 tribal art pieces and nine rare rug books. Among the lots that share the auctioneer’s highest expectations is a medallion Ushak ([Lot 93](. Small Ushak medallion carpets like this one are unusual, and this particular carpet provides a rare glimpse into a transition that occurred at the start of the 18th century. This transition was from the large medallion format, produced for the Ottoman court (and exported to furnish the palaces of European nobility in the 16th century), to the less finely knotted all-over design Ushaks, which ultimately evolved into the Smyrna and Turkish carpets of the 19th and 20th centuries. In this carpet, the weave remains fine, and the lazy lines are still evident. The main medallion boasts an intricate serrated decoration around its circumference. The blue floral tracery is still well-executed, and the overall field suggests a limited view of an endless repetition of a two-medallion scheme. Another highlight is the 'Hartley Clark' eagle group II main carpet ([Lot 101](. This well-published carpet does not have Eagle göls like other carpets characteristic of the group, but it has many of the same technical features first identified by Rautenstengel and Azadi in their 1990 study related to Group II weavings. The two early dyrnak gül types are tall and beautifully articulated. In combination with the unusually fine knotting for the group–asymmetric open right–this gives the carpet a great density of colour that is perhaps most clearly understood through the clarity and apparent prominence of the white pile. The red, arrow-headed ornaments in the minor borders have two indented forms rather than single returns on their undersides. This is an illustration of the fine weave and skill of the weaver, indicative of a carpet of the highest quality. The elems are unique in their drawing and one of the highlights of this carpet. Also noteworthy is an early Safavid Esfahan rug ([Lot 108](. Outside an institutional setting it is rare to find an example in such good condition, with much original pile, and with sides and ends intact–and even more unusual are the areas of cotton used to create highlights in the field. The field design is still more elaborate, and larger than on many examples of this size: there is an implied medallion in the centre of the field and beyond that a large palmette scheme above and below. The field pattern is also a fascinating mix of curvilinear and slightly more rectilinear elements, all framed by a solid, precise and clear deep-blue border, in which the indigo dye has helped to preserve the wool at its original height. This is indeed an elegant and significant carpet. A final mention goes to a Perepedil prayer rug ([Lot 66](. This attractive prayer rug belongs to a small group of Perepedil rugs from the northeast Caucasus. Among them are early versions such as this example, as well as later carpets made in the Russian Kustar workshops from the late 19th century, which copied elements of the design seen here. White-ground prayer rugs were made for personal use in the Caucasus, and the number of surviving rugs with this style of generous border and early field design is extremely small. View other interesting lots by clicking below. [Fine Antique Oriental Rugs XXXIII]( Copyright © 2023 Hali Publications Ltd., All rights reserved. [unsubscribe from this list]( [update subscription preferences](