Antique Bessarabian Carpet 11'6"×14' Black Field with Centaur, Flat-Weave, Circa 1890
| Stock number | 18181 |
| Size | 11 ft 6 in x 14 ft (3.51 m x 4.27 m) |
| Origin | Sweden |
| Age | Circa 1890 |
| Style | Bessarabian |
| Materials | Wool |
| Construction | Flat Weave |
| Colors | Black |
| Pattern | Allover |
A late 19th-century Bessarabian carpet from around 1890, measuring approximately 335.4 × 426.7 cm (about 11'0" × 14'0"). The composition is unusual and pictorial — a centaur figure rendered on a deep black field, framed by a grey-toned border. ("Centaury" in the seller listing is a misspelling of "centaur" — confirmed by the ARS catalog title.) Bessarabia is the historical name for a region between the Prut and Dniester rivers, today divided between Moldova and Ukraine. Bessarabian flat-weave carpets are part of a Eastern European folk-textile tradition that combined Ottoman, Russian, and European decorative vocabularies, with pictorial and figural compositions that are rare in the broader market. Hand-stitched wool flat-weave. Authentic one-of-a-kind antique Eastern European carpet.