Turkish Carpets

A Traditional Turkish Art

Turkish carpets are famous world wide. Their styles of manufacture and their designs are so complex that even people with several years experience and knowledge need to work hard to work out their origins.

Most Turkish carpets are known as kilim, which literally means "plain weave". They are small carpets, with very little pile, used by the bed or on the floor by the main door of the house. Traditionally, these carpets have been woven by housewives as a domestic art with designs going back into history. There was originally no thought of selling or marketing them. The Seljuks introduced really intricate, picturesque weaving during the 11th century, using them as part of their tent interior. Usually they used sheeps' wool, but sometimes goats' wool or cotton was used. In the eastern part of Turkey, close to Hakkari and Malatya, they put threads of gold and silver into the design as a protection against the "evil eye". Kilims are not only used on the floor. People also use them as wall coverings, instead of doors, as separating walls in the tents, for prayer, to sit on, or as bags for keeping bread, salt, corn or even clothes in them.

Normally all carpets made from sheeps' wool, cotton or silk are coloured naturally using roots, bark, berries, plants and minerals, all of them natural products, which means that the colouring process needs plenty of work and time. From the beginning of the nineteenth century more and more chemical products were used, mostly based on aniline inks. If the salesman tries to tell you he has really "old" carpets of pink or orange, be very careful because there is no natural product which will make these colours, so they cannot be old. Today the chemical products are much better, so the colouring does look old and natural. If you take a closer look, you will see that natural colours always show slight variations of shade in the same carpet. This tells you that natural colouring has been used.

Always spend a lot of time talking to the carpet seller. Ask him to explain the symbols in the design and the meaning of the colors while having a tea or a coffee. By doing this, you will see how much he really knows about the carpets. It is important for him to get the feeling that he is not only selling you the carpet, but that you want background information from him. This is the first step in a good business deal for both of you.

Because really old and valuable kilims are rare, the salesmen and manufacturers have discovered several ways to make a new carpet look old. One of the tricks is to leave the carpet in the sun. The rays will change the colour to smoother, softer looking tones, which may look nice but does not alter the age.

Sometimes it helps to turn the carpet over and look at the colours on the back. If they are still very bright, don't believe them when they say the carpet is old. Sometimes chemical bleaches are used to change the colour which isn't good for the natural wool because the quality is affected. If there is a strange smell of bleach, don?t buy the carpet. Sometimes it is easier to sell small carpets, so big ones are cut into pieces and the salesmen try to tell you they are really rare pieces. If you look more closely you will see that the edge of the carpet does not fit properly to the carpet itself. Sometimes mistakes are hidden by using pencils or other colouring agents. If you rub with a white cloth you will easily see whether the colour is original or not. Sometimes sellers use cigarette burns or other ways of dirtying the carpet to make you believe that it is old. The smaller the knots and the more of them used in the weave, together with the thickness of the carpet, indicate that it is going to be worth more, because it means it is much better quality.