Near record price achieved for Caucasian Dragon Carpet at Sotheby’s

October 23, 2014

On 22 October 2014 in New York, a complete but very damaged historic Caucasian Dragon carpet deacquisitioned by the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, Lot 160, fell just a few dollars short of a world record equalling price for it’s type at Sotheby’s sale of ‘Important English and European Decorative Arts’, selling for $149,000 against an estimate of $30-50,000 .

The 18th century weaving, once the property of Robert Gill, was exhibited in ‘A Weaver’s Art’ at the FAMSF in 1979, and was published and discussed in 1985 by Murray Eiland (Pinner & Denny, Oriental Carpet & Textile Studies I, pp.104-106). The carpet is in a very worn condition with substantial repiling and badly faded reweaves. But this did not deter the European trade paying just $180 below the world record price for a Dragon Carpet. The record holder is a superb and almost complete late 18th century ‘two dragon’ type in good condition which fetched $149,180 at Christie’s in London in October 2012 (HALI 174, p.108). Published in Şerare Yetkin’s Early Caucasian Carpets in Turkey, vol. 2, 1978, p.25, the CLO piece is far superior and not really comparable with the SNY lot, except in terms of price.

The second Dragon carpet in the sale, Lot 157, again from the FAMSF holdings, and arguably the more beautiful and interesting of the duo, albeit in considerably more challenged condition, also far outperformed what had seemed a perfectly reasonable estimate of $20-39,000 to fetch $68,750. It too was bought by the European trade.