Silk carpet, Turkey, 19th centurySilk carpet, late 19th century, Hereke or Kum Kapi. The field is covered with thin arabesques in shades of yellow, cream, brown and olive, with a pervading golden glow. Tiny flower heads are almost indistinguishable in pale pink, pale blue and a muted pinkish-red.
Warp: yellow and pink silk arranged in blocks; S3Z; 52 threads per inch (210 per dm); depressed.
Weft: grey silk in the upper part of carpet, red silk in the lower part; S-spun, unplied; 2 shoots after each row of knots; 25 knots per inch (100 per dm).
Pile: silk; 11 colours: dark red, yellow, dark green, green, light green, blue, light blue, pink, light brown, black, light grey plus some very pale shades which may have faded; symmetrical knot tied around 2 threads; 650 knots per sq. inch (10500 per sq. dm).
Side finish: web of 6 cords worked in purple silk; there are small blocks of cream and red silk towards the upper end. The weft from the carpet goes around only the innermost cord on each side.
End finish: 1 cm. of plain weave with purple weft; there is a warp fringe which is in blocks of yellow and pink.
Design: Field: yellow ground covered with a repeating grid-like pattern of arabesques interspersed with small flowers.
Main border: blue ground with a detailed floral meander with arabesques and large palmettes.
Inner border: pink ground with a floral meander.
Outer border: blue ground with a larger version of the inner border design
Outermost border: yellow ground with a small floral meander.