Description

This Melas prayer rug dates to the late 19th century.

It was made in the region of Melas, or Milas, in the southwestern part of Anatolia.

The colour scheme is trademark Melas: a warm orange-red in the field, which has a white mihrab at the top end, plus soft shades of orange-yellow, green, blue and aubergine and dark brown for some outlines.

The design of the mihrab is simple: it is formed by four diagonally arranged plant motifs, or stylized palmettes, and a row of three amulets at the top. The main border on the yellow ground is decorated by a sequence of alternating eight-pointed stars which are filled with an eight-lobed flower head in two colours, and a pair of flower heads predominantly in the colour of the field. Two minor borders flank the main border. They contain a chain of flower heads in the style of the pairs found in the main border.

SOLD

A very similar rug of this type is published in Brüggemann, W. and H. Böhmer, Rugs of the Peasants and Nomads of Anatolia. München 1983, catalogue no.73, p. 257.

The rug has a number of old repairs and some areas of visible wear, but it has retained its original charm and character.