Hereke carpet

Hereke Carpets are slolely produced in Hereke, a cost town in Turkey, 60 km from Istanbul. The used materials are silk, a combination of wool and cotton and sometimes there are used gold or silver threads.

The Ottoman Sultan Abdulmecid I. founded the Hereke Imperial Manufacture in 1841 to let produce there all textiles for his Dolmabahçe Palace on the Marmara Sea. He gathered the best artists and carpet weavers of the former Ottoman Empire in Hereke, what from the beginning of the production based the absolutely high quality of the produced textiles as well as the uniqueness of the patterns of the rugs and large carpets.

After finishing of the Dolmabahçe Palace, the Hereke Carpets were given from the Ottoman Sultans to some selected visiting royalties, noblemen and statesmen as a gift. Only from 1890 it was allowed to some traders in Istanbul to sell some of the masterpieces from Hereke. With the end of the Ottoman Empire the production of the Hereke Carpets was restricted until in the 50th years of the 20th century some masterweavers in Hereke began once more to produce these famous carpets to continue the tradition of the Ottoman Palace Carpets.

Hereke carpets typically are very large, palace sized carpets, and are made with wool on cotton, camel hair on cotton, silk on cotton as well as silk on silk, which are knotted also in small sizes. The presicion of their double knots (Turkish or Gordish Knots), which allow the clear display of patterns, the colour combination and the harmonious patterns endear them to the art lovers and collectors all over the world as an artwork. Today the Hereke Carpets and rugs are made with the old traditional patterns of the Ottoman Sultan Abdulmecid I. as well as with traditional Anatolian patterns and with patterns of the contemporary sense.

Literature

* M. Kenan Kaya (Sanat Tarihçisi M.A), Yaţar Yilmaz (Sanat Tarihçisi M. A), Sara Boynak (Tekstil Uzmani), Vahide Gezgör (Sanat Tarihçisi). "Hereke Silk Carpets And Fabrics In the National Palaces Collection". TBMM, Istanbul.
* Oktay Aslanapa, Ayţe Fazlýođlu. "The Last Loop of the Knot; Ottoman Court Carpets". TBMM, Istanbul, 2006.
* Ug̐ur Ayyildiz. "Hereke and Kayseri: Pure silk Turkish carpets". NET Turizm Ticaret ve Sanayi A.S (1983). ASIN B0007B1NHG
* Önder Küçükerman. "The rugs and textiles of Hereke: A documentary account of the history of Hereke : court workshop to model factory". Sümerbank Genel Müdürlüğü (1987). ASIN B0007BYPCQ

External links

* [http://www.britannica.com/eb/article-9040133/Hereke-carpet Encyclopedia Britannica | Hereke]
* [http://www.theottomans.org/english/art_culture/rugs.asp The Ottomans]