Turkish Antique Oriental Rugs
Ancient Oriental rug weaving can't be pin pointed to an exact date of origin or an exact place. Before the dawn of wall-to-wall carpets, the Turks were experts at creating decorative rugs with a warp and weft by the 13th century, as we can see in a few pieces that have been preserved. In these early times, the patterns were usually in flowers and geometrical shapes. Later, animals were added into the pictures weaved into these antique Turkish rugs of the 14th century. Most of the evidence of Oriental rugs from this time period lies in the paintings of Europeans who saw the rugs. The animals continued in the patterns of the 15th century rugs, but they started to combine them with the geometrical shapes, too. Again, only paintings support this theory since there are no real Turkish rugs to survive from this period of history. The next three centuries saw the rich take over the designs of these antique Oriental rugs. The palace or church would send a design to the weaver with specific colors schemes. You could find these decorative floral, naturalistic style rugs adorning the floors and walls of palaces and churches. You can tell where the antique Turkish rugs were woven by the material used in most cases. Wool would have the thread of choice in the tribal agricultural areas. In settled towns, a combination of wool and cotton would be woven into the rugs. In richer areas, the rugs would be made of silk. You can also tell the difference between a Turkish rug and a Persian rug. The Turkish weavers use symmetrical knots while the Persian weavers use a non-symmetrical knot. Many times the date the rug was made is woven into the edge in Arabic numbers. This is helpful if the weaver was being honest and if you can decipher the date. Before the 20th century, Islamic countries were still using a lunar calendar. Since the lunar months are shorter than solar months, the dates have to be converted to get an accurate year. If the rug was woven in the 17th, 18th, or 19th century, you have to use a formula to convert the date to a Georgian calendar that Western countries use. The "Christian" date would equal the Islamic lunar date plus 622 subtracting the lunar date that has been divided by 33.7. Sometime in the 1920's both Turkey and Persia adopted a solar calendar to match the West. So if the rug were woven after that date, you would only need to add the 622 to the date woven in the edge. These can't be completely accurate, because you may not be able to tell if it was woven before or after the calendar change and because the new year of the Christian calendar is different from the Islamic new year. It should still help you to be prepared when a discount rug dealer is trying to pass off a rug as an antique when it was really woven in 1998. Of course the dye should also give it away since antique Oriental rug weavers would only have access to natural dyes from plants and animals; whereas, modern weavers can use chemical dyes. Do your homework on any piece that is being presented as an antique Oriental rug? Discount rugs can look almost as beautiful, but there are signs to look for to the tell the difference. |
