When is a Talish not a Talish? HALI 175, Auction Price Guide Erratum
When it’s a Kuba! Thanks to the ever vigilant Hagop Manoyan for pointing out that in HALI 175, on page 136, the image of a yellow-ground Northeast Caucasian prayer rug, sold at Grogan’s in Dedham in January 2013, mistakenly accompanies the details and comment for an unusual Talish prayer rug sold by Rippon Boswell in Wiesbaden in November 2012. Our apologies for any confusion caused. Here are both prayer rugs, together with the correct captions and comments.
Talish Prayer Rug, Southeast Caucasus, 19th century. 0.72 × 1.09m (2’4″ × 3’7″). Rippon Boswell, Wiesbaden, 24 November 2012, lot 65. Est: € 1,800, Sold: €1,891 ($2,470).
This pretty prayer rug was previously sold at Bonham’s in Knightsbridge on 25 April 2012, lot 106, for £1,500. A closely similar rug with an arrowhead border, attributed to Karabagh, was unsold at Skinner in July 1998, while another, attributed to Talish, with a red ground diamond border, was published in Maria Cohen’s Shirwan (1995, p.121). A Talish with an identical field, a ‘Solomon star’ beneath the arch and a white-ground octagon border sold for $2,300 at CNY on 7 October 1999. Nagel in Stuttgart offered a very similar rug with an identical border, attributed to Genje, in November 1977. For a rug in the Cleveland Museum of Art with an identical field and an octagon border on red ground, attributed to Shirvan, see Giovanni Curatola, The Simon and Shuster Book of Oriental Carpets, 1982, p.98. Rippon Boswell listed two analogies: a Talish prayer rug with an identical border and a star-filled field published in Engelhardt’s 1980 catalogue Orientteppiche der Sonderclasse (offered at DM24,500), and Ulrich Schürmann, Caucasian Rugs, 1965, pl.131, attributed to Lesghi, which has an identical blue field and an octagon border.
Northeast Caucasian prayer rug, probably Kuba, 19th century. 1.11 x 1.27m (3’8” x 4’2”). Grogan, Dedham, 20 January 2013, lot 194. Est: $4,000-6,000, Sold: $5,605
In Oriental Rugs from Canadian Collections II (1998, pl.47) collector Ross Winter attributed this rug to Shirvan, while it was labelled Kuba in our review of the exhibition (HALI 99, p.87, fig.3). It was available on RugRabbit as recently as 2011. Further examples of prayer rugs with ‘snowflake’ or ‘star-blossom’ fields ate listed in our review of a Kuba prayer rug at CNY on 8 April 1999 (lot 216, HALI 105, p.141. Related yellow ground ‘secular’ rugs include a Kuba in Battilossi’s Tappeti D’Antiquariato (1989, pl.10), which was unsold at SNY’s ‘19th Century & Decorative Art’sale on 16 November 2011 (lot 387) = Peter Pap’s ‘New Acquisitions’ (13 March 2012 ). Part of a related prayer rug with a diagonally-striped border is visible in a photo taken at the ORR/Berdj Abadjian reception in 1983 (Oriental Rug Review III/9, p.43).
