Yellow ground long rug with coffered Memling guls
Cappadocia
East central Anatolia
18th century
324 x 115 cm (10’8” x 3’9”)
Alg 1243
symmetrically knotted wool pile on a wool foundation

Rugs of the yellow ground group have been usually ascribed to the Konya area, although recent studies have attributed them to the eastern region of Cappadocia. Here the pattern is an infinite repeat of parallel columns of polychrome lozenges constructed in a pointillist-like fashion alternated to rows of large octagons containing Memling guls in contrasting colours. The free hand style of drawing is characteristic of the earliest versions of this typology, which consists of a number of interesting variants. The fully saturated quality of the dyes employed is also an indicator of good age, ranging from the very clear lemon yellow of the background to blues, clear greens and soft peaches for the field patterns. The complete condition of this example is a rare feature among the yellow-ground rugs of this period, which are often sourced in fragmentary state.