‘Major Autumn Auction’, Rippon Boswell & Co., Wiesbaden, 17 November 2018

November 9, 2018

Sale highlights

9 images

Lots from Rippon Boswell & Co.'s 'Major Autumn Auction' sale, including rugs belonging to the private collections of Dr. Harald Böhmer as well as Dr. Günther Rapp.

: Lot 191, Qashqa’i gabbeh, Fars, southwest Persia, mid 19th century. 2.74 x 1.32 m. Rippon Boswell, Wiesbaden, 17 November 2018, estimate €18-23,000

: Lot 60, Tekke Turkmen animal-tree ensi, first half 19th century. 1.11 x 1.34 m. Rippon Boswell, Wiesbaden, 17 November 2018, estimate €10-12,000

: Lot 125, Kashkuli Qashqa’i medallion rug (detail), Fars, southwest Persia, mid 19th century. 1.80 x 1.34 m. Rippon Boswell, Wiesbaden, 17 November 2018, estimate €40-45,000

: Lot 75, Avunya prayer rug, northwest Anatolia, mid 19th century. 1.13 x 1.44 m. Rippon Boswell, Wiesbaden, 17 November 2018, estimate €2,500-3,500

: Lot 201, Shahsavan striped rug, Moghan, southeast Caucasus, mid 19th century. 1.93 x 1.38 m. Rippon Boswell, Wiesbaden, 17 November 2018, estimate €5,800-7,500

: Lot 91, Karagashli rug, Shirvan, east Caucasus, first half 19th century. 1.32 x 0.93 m. Rippon Boswell, Wiesbaden, 17 November 2018, estimate €14-18,000

: Lot 48, Kurdish rug, Konya, central Anatolia, 18th century. 1.90 x 1.57 m. Rippon Boswell, Wiesbaden, 17 November 2018, estimate €2,500-3,000

: Lot 44, Shahsavan kilim, Varamin, north Persia, late 19th century. 1.19 x 1.68 m. Rippon Boswell, Wiesbaden, 17 November 2018, estimate €3,600-4,400

: Lot 102, Konya yastik, central Anatolia, mid 19th century. 1.11 x 0.68 m. Rippon Boswell, Wiesbaden, 17 November 2018, estimate €1-1,500

Rippon Boswell & Co. will auction 273 lots including rugs belonging to the private collections of Dr. Harald Böhmer as well as Dr. Günther Rapp at the Major Autumn Auction in Wiesbaden on 17 November.

Lot 60, Tekke Turkmen animal-tree ensi (detail), first half 19th century. 1.11 x 1.34 m. Rippon Boswell, Wiesbaden, 17 November 2018, estimate €10-12,000

One of the highlights of Rippon Boswell’s Wiesbaden sale will be a rare and beautiful Tekke Turkmen ensi (lot 60), first published in 1980 by Robert Pinner and Michael Franses in their long paper on the ‘animal-tree’ genre in Turkoman Studies I (p. 153. fig. 325). Formerly in a Hamburg collection, then with the late Ben Fernandes in Singapore, it was undersold for just $8,125 at Sotheby’s in New York in January 2014, when it was said to have been purchased by a Middle Eastern museum. It is very cautiously estimated at €10-12,000.

Lot 125, Kashkuli Qashqa’i medallion rug (detail), Fars, southwest Persia, mid 19th century. 1.80 x 1.34 m. Rippon Boswell, Wiesbaden, 17 November 2018, estimate €40-45,000

The Wiesbaden sale also contains a number of superb, if not always unfamiliar, rugs with good pedigree and low estimates. Of particular note is an ex-Black & Loveless, ex-Kossow Collection Kashkuli Qashqa’i medallion rug published by both Ian Bennett and Cyrus Parham, last sold at Rippon Boswell in March 2011 for $67, 400 (HALI 168, p.140), but now in at only €40-45,000 (lot 125). And from the same March 2011 sale, an outstanding Darrehshuri Qashqa’i gabbeh, ex-Siawosch Azadi, ex-Eberhart Herrmann, ex-Kossow, which cost the present consignor $53,580 (HALI 168, p.141), is estimated at just €18-23,000 this time around (lot 191).

Lot 191, Qashqa’i gabbeh (detail), Fars, southwest Persia, mid 19th century. 2.74 x 1.32 m. Rippon Boswell, Wiesbaden, 17 November 2018, estimate €18-23,000

However, at the heart of the auction is a small group of mainly 19th-century Anatolian pile rugs and runners consigned by the heirs of the natural dye specialist Harald Böhmer, and his friend Dr Günther Rapp, some of which were published by Werner Brüggemann and Dr Böhmer in their Rugs of the Peasants and Nomads in Anatolia. They include a very colourful Avunya prayer rug with a pinwheel border from the Dardanelles region in northwest Anatolia, estimated at only €2,500-3,500 (Brüggemann & Böhmer, no.74), and also a very interesting subset of eastern Anatolian rugs (Brüggemann & Böhmer, nos. 96-98).

Lot 75, Avunya prayer rug (detail), northwest Anatolia, mid 19th century. 1.13 x 1.44 m. Rippon Boswell, Wiesbaden, 17 November 2018, estimate €2,500-3,500