May
07
2008
Antique Kilims have had their ups and downs in the rug market. Once upon a time they were considered unfit for export. More a utilitarian item of daily life than a folk craft practiced for commercial profit, kilims had always been intended for domestic use rather than sale in foreign lands. The few fragmentary pieces that arrived in the West were used as wrappings to bail pile rugs. But as Westerners interested in Oriental rugs began to travel more in Turkey and the Caucasus, kilims gradually became known to collectors in Europe and America, and eventually they came to be appreciated for the masterpieces of village weaving that they are. Though produced in a simpler flatwoven tapestry technique, antique kilims represent an impressive rage of designs from the very small to the monumental (nos. 699, 3402, and 489). For sheer graphic force and quality of color, nothing can beat a good antique Turkish or Anatolian kilim. The only antique pile rugs that achieved such effects are the most sought after types of Caucasian Kazaks or the best Turkish village rugs (41428). Continue Reading »
Popularity: 4% [?]
Apr
05
2008
Turkish rugs occupy an unusual position in the rug world. During the later Middle Ages and the Renaissance, they were the decorative rug par excellence, dominating the market in Europe and even in Middle East itself. As early as the late thirteenth century the famous traveler Marco Polo commented on the high esteem in which Turkish carpets were held. Throughout the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, the great master painters of Europe relied upon Turkish rugs as background props that could immediately suggest the status and prestige of the various personages they depicted. Only in the course of the later sixteenth and seventeenth centuries did Persian rugs and carpets attain the standing they now occupy as the pre-eminent or standard oriental carpet for home decor. Nowadays with the exception of Oushak or Sivas carpets, Turkish rugs are primarily attractive to collectors who eagerly seek out scatter sized rugs produced in the villages across Asiatic Turkey. Among such Turkish village production, a few types hold a special prominence for their exceptional color and their sense of nomadic or tribal design – the Yuruks of Eastern Turkey, the Konya and Karapinar rugs of Central Turkey, and the Melas and Bergama rugs of the western Anatolian region. Within such production Bergama rugs have a special place because of the high quality of their weave and the purity of their design, which has remained faithful to the types documented in Renaissance painting right into the nineteenth century, if not later.
The example shown here (40792) reproduces the so-called Ghirlandaio type, so named because they were depicted by the great Italian master Domenico Ghirlandaio (1449-1494). Though very probably produced in the mid nineteenth century, this example comes extremely close to the few carpets of this type that can be dated to the fifteenth century, as well as to the examples depicted by Ghirlandaio himself. The medallions consist of various segments or facets adapted from a classic type of Islamic architectural decoration known as “mugarnas.” The small indentations along the edges are elaborated by tiny squares with angular hooks. The medallions on this rug are an elaborated type where the muqarnas elements are expanded outward and grouped around a central square enclosing an octagon. The stepped cornerpieces also have muqarnas fillers and more of the little hooked squares within each step. The border consisting of radial clusters of four serrated leaves is also an early type attested among the oldest extant Ottoman rugs and in Renaissance paintings. Continue Reading »
Popularity: 28% [?]
Jan
07
2008
The art of embroidery, especially that using silk as a long history in Oriental textile production reaching well back into the Islamic past into Central Asia, and ultimately to China, the source of all silk production. The early Seljuk Turks, when they first arrived in Persia and Anatolia between the eleventh and the thirteenth centuries, must have brought the art of silk embroidery with them from their Central Asian homeland. By the time the Osmanli or Ottoman Turks became a major power in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, silk embroidery was well established in Turkey as a luxury court production, often made within the harem of the sultan in the Topkapi Palace itself. Read more about this Antique Ottoman Silk Embroidery Textile, 18th century
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Antique Ottoman Silk Embroidery Textile
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Popularity: 85% [?]
Oct
04
2007
A Subtle Play of Opposites
From a relatively early time in the Ottoman period, the town of Oushak in westernTurkey has been a major center of rug production. Many of the great masterpieces of early Turkish carpet weaving from the fifteenth to the seventeenth centuries have been attributed to this center. The great star and medallion Oushak carpets of the late fifteenth to seventeenth century were made there, and it is even possible that the various carpets of the so-called “Holbein” type of family were products of Oushak as well. To say the very least, Oushak has a major claim to a long and distinguished tradition of rug weaving which has continued right up into modern times.
Continue Reading »
Popularity: 28% [?]
May
15
2007
Written by Betsy Murphy
Tuesday, 15 May 2007
The annual meeting of the International Conference on Oriental Carpets is always an exciting event, but when it is held in Istanbul, one of the most exotic and romantic cities in Europe, and a center of carpet production and commerce for the past five hundred years or more, ICOC is simply “carpet heaven.” I stayed in the lovely Sultanahment district, the oldest part of the Ottoman city, where there were a number of related exhibitions. The TIEM (Turk ve Islam Eserleri Muzesi) mounted a spectacular show of early carpets from the Seljuk period, as well as various other oversize court carpets, Ushaks, etc. It was simply divine. The TIEM also put up an amazing selection of Ikats from the collection of Mehmet Cetinkaya. The Vakiflar Museum had two exhibitions of their incredible collection of early rugs as well, one on pile carpets, and one just for kilims. In conjunction with all this the Yildiz Palace held a memorial exhibition of kilims from the personal collection of the renowned expert Josephine Powell, who passed away last March.
Continue Reading »
Popularity: 29% [?]
Nov
27
2006
Contributed by Jason Nazmiyal
Monday, 27 November 2006
The Scandinavian region became aly found their way home with Viking merchants active in Russia and the Byzantine Empire. In the centuries that followed such trade ties introduced the knotted pile carpet from Ottoman Turkey. Indeed one of the earliest surviving Turkish carpets comes from the parish church at Marby, Sweden.
Popularity: 9% [?]
Aug
11
2006
Written by Marc Beharry
Friday, 11 August 2006
Featuring the finest carpets and rugs from around the world, the New York International Carpet Show (NYICS) will not disappoint.
New York’s first trade show dedicated solely to importers of handmade Oriental rugs and carpets, will be held in the Gramercy Park Armory on Lexington Avenue at 26th street from September 17-20th.
Organized by renown expert in the field, Dennis Dodds, we can plan to see the latest in contemporary designs, as well as extraordinary antique Oriental and Persian decorative textiles. Some samples of these lovely woven treasures can be found online ahead of time at: http://nyics.com
For more information about attending or exhibiting, please visit their site: http://nyics.com/
Industry professionals are admitted free, so do not forget your business cards. Hope to see you there….
Popularity: 12% [?]
