Watch List notes:

Turkey: Mustafa Kemal [Atatürk] carpet, circa. 1920-1923; size: carpet only (not incl. fringes): 59.7cm x 95.7cm. The carpet design is based on a famous 1918 photograph of Ataturk standing in full military uniform, although the rendition on the carpet is more youthful than his appearance in the photograph; below there is a legend in Ottoman-Turkish. The design is reminiscent of a similar weave made in Jerusalem by the Alliance Israelite Universelle School, but more artistic, intricate and with Turkish devices in the design: in this instance, with a romantic-militaristic depiction of Ataturk, the rug may date to the period of the Turkish War of Independence (1919-1923), where Ataturk became a dominant national figurehead after his party's victory in December 1919, and Ataturk himself as the head of the nationalist Turkish government in Ankara (Jan. 1920). Rare and undocumented, fully intact.