1600-1700s, Turkish; Transylvanian

Carpet, Transylvanian Carpet, hand knotted woollen pile on woollen warp and weft, probably Turkish but may have been woven in the Balkans, 17th/early 18th century
Warp: light red wool and white wool; Z2S; 14-16 threads per inch/55-60 per dm
Weft: red wool; Z-spun, unplied, 2 parallel threads per inch; 2 shoots of weft after each row of knots; 7-9 knots per inch/25-26 per dm
Pile: wool; 7 colours: red, light red, yellow, blue, light blue, dark brown and white; symmetrical knot tied around two threads; 49 - 72 knots per sq.in/675 - 780 per sq.dm
Side Finish: Left: web of four cords overcast with yellow wool; Right web of three cords overcast with yellow wool.
End Finish: Lower: maximum of 3.5cm (1.5 in) plain weave with yellow wool. Upper: maximum 2.5cm (1") plain weave with red wool and 1.9 cm (0.75 in) plainweave with yellow wool.
Design: Field: red ground with double niche. Outr diamond of 12 white rosettes, yellow inner diamond of 4 linked horizontally with decorated bars and diagonally by leaves terminating with white dots. Upper pair of spandrels: right blue ground, left yellow ground each containing white circular flowers with a central rosette, a pair of incomplete redserrated leaves, a two-colour rosette and, at the top, half a red floral triangle. The niche point bears two pairs of white hooks. Lower spandrels: reverse colouring with three pairs of buds replacing hooks.
Main Border: red ground, alternating white and yellow cartouches, each enclosing a red diamond framing a variety of reosettes. On either side of the diamond are three 4-petalled flowers.
Inner Border: red ground with small cruciform flowers in all colours.
Outer Border: inter-locking directional shapes containing a small flower and stem in all colours.
Date catalogued: 14/04/1999

Carpets with this type of design are often called Transylvanian carpets because a large number of them were hung in the main church in Brasov, Romania, in the region known as Transylvania. It is not certain whether this type of carpet was woven in Turkey or in one of the Ottoman provinces in south-east Europe, or in both places. Note how the pattern in the border of is truncated abruptly just below the upper border. It is a simple repetition of two cartouches which the weavers followed until they had woven the required length and then they stopped, and began work on the upper border. The weaver on the left hand side was weaving shorter and fatter cartouches indicating that they were interpreting a sketch.

225-1889