3’5″x4’2″ Bergama Prayer Rug, Western Anatolia, 19th century
Relatively rare double column Turkish prayer rugs have a storied past. Two famous examples from the Ballard Collection at the Metropolitan Museum of Art date from the late 16th and 17th centuries.
Eberhart Herrmann, the famous German dealer, illustrates a nearly identical example to ours in one of his catalogs entitled “Rare Oriental Carpets, Volume 4,” published in 1982. Thin in pile with an entire minor border missing all around, the rug retains its visual vigor and maintains the historical connection to this famous rug group.
