Vintage Turkish Oushak Rug BB2969 11'0" × 14'2" $50,000

An Oushak carpets on a soft beige field with an unusual soft beige and peach medallionsurrounded by geometric vines framed by a linear pale green border.

Since the sixteenth century, antique oriental carpets and antique rugs from Oushak (also known as Ushak) have been represented among the carefully chosen and highly esteemed objects d’art in the studied interiors and still life paintings of important European personages, as depicted by such artists as Holbein, Lotto, Velasquez, Memling and Vermeer. Until the eighteenth century, the Ottoman Turkish carpets with unabated designs such as ‘medallion’ and ‘star’ in royal tones of brick red, terracotta, deep blue and gold were decisively in vogue, and even after that period they have continued to grace European interiors.

Over time, designs of Oushak rugs have started to evolve yet still managed to retain the distinctive character of the sixteenth century prototypes, continuing to reference large scale ovoid or star-shaped medallions enclosing split-leaf ‘rumi’ and floral vinery displayed on fields of delicate floral tracery.