Fine Turkish Kayseri Carpet

Fine Kayseri carpet handwoven in Turkey. Central medallion design.

The relationship between Persian and Turkish weaving is a long and complex one. Both countries have weaving cultures that can be divided into three main strands: Indigenous village and tribal weaving, the court-orientated carpets of the Safavids and Ottomans, (i.e. so-called ‘Classical’ carpets of the 16th to 18th centuries predominantly), and urban weavings of the 19th and 20th centuries. The Ottoman Turkish court and aristocracy throughout the 16th and 17th centuries seem to have favoured Persian town carpets above those of their own workshops in Ushak and elsewhere. Evidence for this comes from the significant number of major Safavid carpets either documented, or by oral tradition, supposed to have been captured from Turkish viziers and military commanders during the various Ottoman campaigns in eastern and central Europe throughout the 17th century. There is also the unresolved, and now perhaps the unresolvable problem of what was woven in Tabriz during the 16th century when it was constantly being captured by the Ottomans then taken back by the Safavids during a series of wars. Certainly the large medallion carpets now generally attributed to Tabriz seem to have been the direct source for the large Medallion carpets woven in Ushak from the 16th century through to the 18th century. There has been an Armenian involvement in rug weaving throughout the Middle East from at least the Safavid times and almost certainly further back than that. In more recent times their involvement in both the Persian and Turkish weaving industries and specifically their production of fine silk rugs, has been responsible for a particular style of Turkish weaving associated above all with the Istanbul suberb of Kum Kapi as well as the famous workshops at Hereke, Panderma, Kayseri, and elsewhere, all of which produced rugs far more in tune with the Persian floral, curvilinear aesthetic than with the more stylised, geometric Turkish idiom.

For further information please contact us and our team will be pleased to assist you. All pieces in the collection are under the auspices of Essie Sakhai, one of the world’s foremost experts and collectors of fine handmade Persian rugs and carpets.