Karapinar Tulip Rug from the Philadelphia Museum of Art

This magnificent carpet is Plate 36 in the late Charles Grant Ellis's, Oriental Carpets in the Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1988. Ellis catalogues this carpet as Kilim-Style Rug, Central Anatolia, Eighteenth-Nineteenth Century. At this point I tend to suspect that this rug is older but I hate to disagree with Charlie Ellis casually so I will think about it for a while.

See below mt musings on a related note:

Divrigi Ulu Mosque North entrance
Photo by Dick Osseman

Ellis notes the lack of dark outlining typical in Turkish rugs and suggests that this gives the carpet a effect like we see in kilim and tile. He compares this carpet to a kilim found in the Great Mosque at Divrigi (left) in terms of color and the lack of outlining and to a number of other kilims in terms of the lack of outlining.

Karapinar Tulip Rug from the Philadelphia Museum of Art

How do we date Early Karapinar Carpets?
Not long ago Wendel Swan sent me a picture of the Textile Museum Karapinar tulip long rug. It is a magnificent rug and a very early example of the type but the Textile Museum has it listed as 19th century. How then can the Textile Museum date this rug so late? I think I have it figured out. I don't agree but now I think I understand the rational.

Mae Beattie identified a group of unusual Kilims that she dated to the 17th century. I believe that Court Kilim from the Ulu Mosque in Divrigi is an example of that group. So if Charlie Ellis accepted Mae Beattie's attribution of 17th century and I am sure he would because I think he helped her with it, then you can understand how he dated the Karapinar Tulip Rug from the Philadelphia Museum of Art to the 18th to 19th century. So if Karapinar Tulip Rug from the Philadelphia Museum of Art is 18th to 19th century then you can understand how Ellis who had a great deal of input on such thing at the Textile Museum would date the Textile Museum Karapinar tulip long rug to the 19th century.

The problem is that a number of rugs are plausibly date dated much earlier such as to Turkish Rugs: Karapinar Long Rug C. 1600 and Turkish Rugs: Karapinar Long Rug from the Vakiflar Museum Circa 1600 - 1700. My thought is that the Ottoman took Egypt in 1517 so why not date the Court Kilim from the Ulu Mosque in Divrigi to circa 1500. After all it is made in the Egyptian manner. So if we date that one to 1500 then we can quiet plausibly date Turkish Rugs: Karapinar Long Rug C. 1600, Turkish Rugs: Karapinar Long Rug from the Vakiflar Museum Circa 1600 - 1700, Textile Museum Karapinar tulip long rug, Turkish Rugs: Karapinar Long Rug Fragment from the Wolf Collection, and Karapinar Yellow Ground Tulip Rug from Berdj Achdjian to circa 1600 and into the 17th century. So where do we put the Karapinar Tulip Rug from the Philadelphia Museum of Art? How about mid 16th century?

How to navigate SpongoBongo and find anything. The problem is that this site mirrors my thought process and it is hard to find things. The secret is that it is intended to be navigated from Google. But if you want another way try my sitesearch. Also try Oriental Rugs and Carpets Site Map.