Turkish Hereke Pure Silk Rug

This beautiful Turkish Hereke rug features a large central medallion woven in a luxurious teal blue and beige with accents of orange and grey. The central desisgn is then enclosed by a delicately detailed repeat pattern border The manufacturing of these masterpieces luxury oriental rugs began late the 19th century. This handmade carpet was woven in Asian Anatolia, Turkey in the historic city of Hereke. In the mid-19th century, Sultan Abdul Majid proclaimed Hereke to be the royal weaving village. The silk rugs were woven there were considered the finest in the world. All examples used select Borsa silk which is the finest quality carpet silk. The Sultan required that all of the silk rugs woven in Hereke had to be signed with the name Hereke. These carpets were regularly woven for the aristocracy in Europe, Asia, and The Middle East. The design of this rug is unique because it is an interpretation of the famous 17th-century Mughal carpet from India. The Mughal carpet was exhibited in the Metropolitan Museum and was illustrated in the book called Flowers Under Foot, published by the Museum. The carpet has 1200 knots per square inch, and the entire field is woven of silver/metallic thread. The signature (see detail photos) is written in the ottoman script and says Use Ipek, which was the premier workshops in Hereke during the 1980s.