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This small silk prayer carpet I bought over the Internet on a German rug auction last year:
Here is the description of the carpet by the auction house:
"80 cm x 48 cm..."Kum Kapi" prayer carpet. Silk with gilded yarn. Hand knotted. Turkey. Extremely fine knot. Probably Fatih District Istanbul about 80 - 100 years old."
Since the price was not very high, as usually will be the case with Kum Kapi rugs, and I could not find a parallel to it in the few books and articles on Kum Kapis I was able to find, I became a little suspicious about its origin. Could perhaps be a Kum Kapi, but... Then I came across this picture of a strikingly similar rug in Irmgard und Sefik Türker: "Kostbarkeiten orientalischer Teppichknüpfkunst", Band IV, Kollektion Türkas, 1975 p. 28-29:
Although the border is different, the colours differ somewhat, and my rug is smaller, the design is very, very close. So is it a Feshane? There is not much written about Feshane carpets which seem to be at least as rare as Kum Kapis, but they are given two chapters in this sumptuous book, where the Kollektion Türkas rugs are also referenced and apparently accepted as genuine:
https://arkassanatmerkezi.com/wp-con...manli-hali.pdf
So is my rug a Feshane, Kum Kapi or something else? What do you think?
Here is the description of the carpet by the auction house:
"80 cm x 48 cm..."Kum Kapi" prayer carpet. Silk with gilded yarn. Hand knotted. Turkey. Extremely fine knot. Probably Fatih District Istanbul about 80 - 100 years old."
Since the price was not very high, as usually will be the case with Kum Kapi rugs, and I could not find a parallel to it in the few books and articles on Kum Kapis I was able to find, I became a little suspicious about its origin. Could perhaps be a Kum Kapi, but... Then I came across this picture of a strikingly similar rug in Irmgard und Sefik Türker: "Kostbarkeiten orientalischer Teppichknüpfkunst", Band IV, Kollektion Türkas, 1975 p. 28-29:
Although the border is different, the colours differ somewhat, and my rug is smaller, the design is very, very close. So is it a Feshane? There is not much written about Feshane carpets which seem to be at least as rare as Kum Kapis, but they are given two chapters in this sumptuous book, where the Kollektion Türkas rugs are also referenced and apparently accepted as genuine:
https://arkassanatmerkezi.com/wp-con...manli-hali.pdf
So is my rug a Feshane, Kum Kapi or something else? What do you think?