East Anatolian Kilim

This Reyhanli kilim from the Kurdish region of southeastern Anatolia is woven with a rainbow of colors. There are several distinct shades of blues, greens, reds and orange. Indeed, the red of this piece is quite special being derived from madder root rather than imported cochineal. Strangely enough, it seems to have been East Anatolian pieces such as this one that were first exported to the West, Austria-Hungary in particular, in great numbers. Woven in two halves with long and narrow proportions these pieces were often used in the nineteenth century as curtains in cities throughout the Hapsburg empire.

Collection of Lucille A. Lamkin