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-- Possibly Unique Garrus Sumak (http://www.turkotek.com/VB22/showthread.php?threadid=1416)

Possibly Unique Garrus Sumak

Dear folks -

In a phone conversation with Harold Keshishian the other evening, he asked if I had taken pictures of his Garrus sumak with botehs in the field. I said that I had not because it had been published twice in recent years.

But Wendel has mentioned it in another thread in this mini-salon and some here may not know of it. Since it is such an exceptional piece, I have scanned it and present it below, despite the fact that it is difficult to photograph and to scan well.

The comprehensive image is from the catalog from ICOC X. It shows the piece over all, although the curve of the book shows on the left side of this image.



A second detail image is from Wertime's volume "Sumak" where this piece gets a full double facing page presentation. This is the right side.



Here is part of what Wertime says about this piece:

"Since its publication in Landreau and Pickering's groundbreaking catalog, "From the Bosporus to Samarkand," plate 42 has been recognized as one of the masterpieces of sumak bag art....It is unusually fine....Plate 42 must be considered one of the oldest of the Shahsevan Persianate sumak pieces to survive. It is probably from a specially commissioned bag, for no other examples like it are known."

It is hard to get a sense of how good this piece is from these images, but those who have had it in their hands come away uniformly impressed that it is one of the best they have ever seen.

Regards,

R. John Howe