Freeman’s Sells Caucasian Rug for $341,625

Maine Antique Digest, ME
Jan 22 2007

A rug from the estate of deceased Philadelphia lawyer and museum
president Robert Montgomery Scott, estimated at $15,000/25,000, sold
for $341,625 (includes buyer’s premium) at Freeman’s in Philadelphia
on December 14, 2006, a record for any rug sold at Freeman’s in the
firm’s 200-year history.

Cataloged as a Chelaberd rug, South Caucasus, probably early 19th
century or earlier, the 6’1" x 5’4" rug, advertised on Freeman’s Web
site and in HALI, the international rug magazine, brought potential
buyers to Freeman’s from around the globe. The buyer on the phone,
according to the buzz in the rug world, was a prominent European
dealer. The underbidder was a private collector in the salesroom.

When asked why the rug provoked such competitive bidding, San
Francisco, California, and Dublin, New Hampshire, dealer Peter Pap
said he advised his client, who was the underbidder, to buy it because
of its rarity and desirability.

Pap explained, "I have always wanted to see a rug that represented
a link between the South Caucasian workshop carpets-always long and
narrow-of the seventeenth and eighteenth century and the circa 1800
and early nineteenth-century small village rugs from the same region.
The Freeman’s rug is as close to that link as I’m aware of having
come on the market to date," he said.

"The eagle or sunburst medallion is actually a secondary motif found
in the original long rugs, but becomes the main design element, as
the dramatic central medallion, in these later small village rugs.
The Freeman’s rug is actually an exact replica of a section of a famous
mid-eighteenth-century Karabagh carpet in the famous Thyssen-Bornemisza
collection. The weavers have simply put a frame around the single
center medallion and its secondary palmettes and created a small rug,
possibly the first of its type.

"The fact that the Freeman’s rug is woven on a cotton foundation and
has a weave that differs from both the early workshop carpets and
the later village rugs from the Karabagh region suggests an origin
further east in the Caucasus. The colors are more muted than the
Karabagh palette would dictate and lack the classic yellow and green
and strong red so often found in Karabagh weaving."

David Weiss, who catalogs rugs for Freeman’s, said the wool was
lustrous and silk-like, and it was in very good condition. "It shows
that the rug market is strong for the finest pieces," he said.

The rug was sold in a three-day pre-Christmas sale of silver,
decorative arts, rugs and carpets, and Asian arts that brought just
over $2 million, raising Freeman’s total sales for 2006 to $23.1
million.

Photo of rug at
7/rug0207.htm