Kilims are for today a forgotten or little-known decorative fabrics with its colors and ornamentation referring to the Orient. Specialists and connoisseurs of the subject can see in them a rich history of Polish artistic weaving.
During the interwar period, the oriental fabric which was the kilim was made famous by Polish designers and has become a valued and eagerly sourced decoration, recognized for their artistic values all over Europe. Kilim is the name from the eastern part of the world undoubtedly. According to a renowned subject expert – Emmanuel Świejkowski – it comes from the wool of Cilicia.
The fabric was most common among the Prussians, Romanians, Serbs, Slovaks, in south-eastern Poland and even in Scandinavia. Most likely kilims were brought to these lands from the areas of Asia today and did not spread beyond the South-Eastern Europe.
The topics related to the study of vintage kilim rugs is not simple. The turmoil of war and the lack of written sources often causes a problem with the location of the origin and proper dating of the fabric. Certain facilitation for researchers is the correct interpretation of ornamentation, through which they can approximately determine the place and time of the carpet.
The kilim itself was originally produced by the rural population, which was inspired by the vintage kilim rugs of the Orient. The undoubted influence of the formation of kilim crafting areas of Southeastern Europe was the development of trade and numerous wars, as well as the settlement of immigrant populations from Asia. Locals, drawing from these contacts, involuntarily started to take inspiration from the art and culture of the immigrant population. This trend has also affected the art of making rugs. Locals on the basis of new models from the era made their own transformation, simplification, and thus created their own art. Simultaneously with the development of weaving over the centuries they created a separate design form, which can be attributed to specific places of their origin.
