Antique Turkish Hereke Rug BB5945 6'4" × 9'8" $25,000

This circa-1920 antique Turkish Hereke rug features a center medallion in the form of a floral abstraction in beige, surrounded by garden imagery, against a field of bone white. Corner brackets and a main border add tradition to this antique early 20th century carpet. In the early nineteenth century, on the outskirts of Istanbul, the Hereke carpet workshop was established, becoming famous for producing exceptional, finely woven carpets of outstanding technical ability. These antique Hereke rugs often feature luxurious materials such as silk and metal-thread worked into designs, emulating the antique Persian carpets of the Ottoman and Safavid Court workshops. Hereke carpets typically are very large, palace sized carpets, with the precision of their double knots (Turkish or Ghiordes knots) allowing for a clear display of patterns. Today, Hereke carpets and rugs are still made with the traditional patterns of the Ottoman sultan, Abdülmecid I, as well as both traditional Anatolian and contemporary figurative patterns.