(Museum-Quality) (One of 70 "Best-of-Their-Type Rugs" Sold in 2025)  Woven near the Aegean coast in southwestern Turkey, this exceedingly rare over 200-year-old rug offers the quadruple niche or “seccade” format. Artistically, the controlled assymetry, for which Anatolian weavings are revered, in this piece is mind-boggling.A marvelous central theme shows a twisting column supporting what looks like a diverging stream, becoming two waterfalls that nourish exceedingly dissimilar 'Trees of Life' symbols. Hyper-stylized tulips float on a frame of painterly abrash, to frame the field. Its arresting colors are from a time when now-lost dye formulae yielded brilliant hues from natural sources. After the 1860s, Turkish weavers became “early adopters” of synthetic dyes. Here, an almost royal splendor is revealed in lavish Tyrian purple, burnished golds, cardinal red, royal, and aqua blue. Ceramic vessel-shaped flowerheads appear to blink and flash as the eye traces this magnetic border sequence. This piece's fantastic condition at some 225 years old alludes to it being recognized by its long line of previous owners as a treasure worthy of veneration.

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