Christie’s forthcoming auction, Art of the Islamic and Indian Worlds including Oriental Rugs and Carpets displays a rich selection of rare objects, paintings, manuscripts and carpets from across the Middle East, India and Europe. The sale draws upon a fascinating Classical Ottoman narrative that illustrates the artistic repertoire at its most exuberant. This is led by six remarkably preserved Venetian portraits of Ottoman Sultans from a previously unknown series, featured in the latest Cornucopia, and two paintings from the circle of Jean-Baptiste Vanmour of Ottoman subjects. This same narrative continues in The Deeg Collection of Oriental carpets, which was formed over four decades from the 1960’s and is being offered for the first time at auction. Inspired by his travels through the Middle East and Turkey, Paul Deeg’s love of colour, form and design, of Anatolian rugs and fragments in particular, runs as a thread through the collection.
The sale further encompasses a series of works that highlight the reciprocal influences between the arts of Europe and the Middle East such as an intricately engraved Veneto Saracenic bucket, an extremely rare Almohad or Nasrid Andalucian brass vase, and bone-inlaid pyxis. These are offered alongside a selection of early Iranian metalwork led by an early 13th century silver-inlaid ewer.
Other carpet highlights from various owners include two 17th-century ‘Lotto’ rugs, a small medallion Ushak and a highly unusual 17th century Ottoman kilim. Amongst the fine Qajar Persian weavings is a striking green-ground Heriz carpet and a lustrous cerulean-blue silk Heriz prayer rug of exceptional quality.
Lot number: 75
A RARE BABA NAKKAŞ IZNIK BLUE AND WHITE JAR
Ottoman Turkey, c1520
The white ground decorated in shades of blue with a band of meandering tendrils issuing complex floral terminals, a lobed band below, a meandering floral tendril on blue ground above, a similar band around the mouth, areas of restoration (est £100,000–£150,000)
Lot number: 76
SIX MAGNIFICENT PORTRAITS OF OTTOMAN SULTANS
Venetian School, Circa 1600
From a previously unknown series, oil on canvas, depicting Orhan (r.1326-1362), Bayezid I (r.1389-1402), Isa Celebi (1380-1406) , Mehmet I (r.1413-1421), Selim I (r.1512-1520) and Selim II (r.1566-1574), frame.
Estimate: £800,000–£1,200,000
THE MARY GRIGGS BURKE 'LOTTO'
Probably Ushak, West Anatolia, Early 17th Century
Estimate: £50,000–£70,000
Lot number: 129
A DOUBLE-NICHE MEDALLION USHAK RUG
West Anatolia, Late 16thCentury
Estimate: £35,000–£55,000
Islamic, South Asian and Middle Eastern Week at Sotheby’s London, Autumn 2021
Issue 66, December 2023
Turkey’s Centenary Issue
