Antique Van Kilim Eastern Anatolian Rug Turkish Carpet

About the Item

This is an Eastern Anatolian Old made in two halves Kilim from the Van region with a rare and beautiful color composition. Van lies on the southeast side of Lake Van, which is the largest water mass in Anatolia, and the second largest in the Middle East. Lake Van is a salt-water lake with little natural life bar the darekh, a type of carp that has adapted itself to a saline environment. Close to modern Van and near the Rock of Van, where ruins show cuneiform inscriptions dating from the seventh and eighth centuries BC, lies Tooshpa, which was the capital of the Urartian kingdom of the seventeenth to the thirteenth century BC. Van enjoyed prosperity under the Armenian Bagratid dynasty during the eighth century AD, before the town was taken over by Seljuk Turks in the eleventh century, and subsequently came under Ottoman rule in the fifteenth century. Old Van was destroyed by the Ottomans when occupied by Russia between 1915 and 1917. The new Van city was built a short distance away and forms an important market center for the Kurdish tribes. The Hartushi tribe resides in this area, as well as across the border close by in Iraq. Hartushi kilims are of the slitweave variety. Similarly the once nomadic Herki tribe is to be found here as well as in Iraq. The Herki weave kilims in the weft-wrapping technique. Kilims continue to be woven in Van, although not on a scale sufficient for commercial and export purposes. The wool and the quality of the weaving are good, yet their colors lack the intensity to mimic older pieces successfully. Van is now on the tourist path, and one should be cautious of buying kilims here. They are a good deal cheaper in Istanbul. Van kilims are easily recognizable by their compositions and coloration. The central designs are often in paired hooked diamond-shaped medallions. A second design features smaller medallions and hooked motifs in horizontal rows, and this type generally has vertical bands of contrasting ground color. Another variety has horizontal bands, the wider of which are filled with small hexagonal motifs. Sometimes this format has plain-colored wide bands, with the design in the smaller bands. Borders are always narrow, and often have a zig-zag pattern or hook design.

Dimensions:

Width: 67.72 in (172 cm)Length: 81.5 in (207 cm)

Style:

Kilim (In the Style Of)

Materials and Techniques:

Natural Fiber,Wool,Hand-Knotted,Hand-Woven

Place of Origin:

Turkey

Period:

Mid-20th Century

Date of Manufacture:

circa 1950