Antique Kurdish Herki Rug, Eastern Anatolian Carpet

About the Item

This is an Antique Kurdish Herki Rug from the Eastern Anatolia and Northern Iraqi region with a rare and beautiful color composition. Iraqi Kurds are mainly concentrated within a mountainous region of north and north-east Iraq. Originally a Central Asian people, the Kurds are Sunni Muslims, retaining their national Kurdish identity and resistant to change in whatever country they reside. Characteristics of Kurdish kilims include a weft-wrapping technique that leaves long floating wefts on the reverse of the kilim and ends that are often plaited with long fringes. The main kilim-weaving tribes include the Herki, Dizai, Yazidi, and Surchi. Of these, the Herkis were the most prolific weavers, making flatweaves in the weft-wrapping technique. Their kilims are generally woven in two pieces and joined. Designs are very variable and colors include dark reds, browns, and blues, with a little white. More modern kilims feature small amounts of pink and orange. The Dizai are now mainly settled. They weave a few bags and trappings, and their slit-woven kilims are not dissimilar to the banded kilims from Malatya. The Yazidi from the north of Mosul make both slitweave and supplementary weft-wrapped kilims, and their designs are arranged usually in horizontal bands; the slitweave variety resembles those made near Van in the Hakkari region of Turkey. The kilims of the Surchi are similar to those of the Herki, except that the designs tend to be a little larger. Iraqi Kurdish kilims do not appear with great frequency in the markets, save for some Herki pieces, and no doubt with the upheavals following the Gulf War, even fewer kilims will appear in the future.

Dimensions:

Width: 33.47 in (85 cm)Length: 70.87 in (180 cm)

Style:

Oushak (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:

1950s