Hereke in pure silk | 61 x 45 cm | Nr. Z-782

Hereke in pure silk, light brown with border and paradise garden pattern

Origin	Turkey
Dimensions	61 cm x 45 cm (= 0.27 m²)
Construction	hand-knotted
Material	Pile: pure silk Weft & Warp: pure silk
knots per m²2	1.100.000
Pile height	3mm
Year of manufacture	2000
Colour	Light brown, blue-grey
Edition	one-of-a-kind piece

Origin

Very valuable silk rugs come from the Turkish town of Hereke. The tradition was fostered by the art-loving Sultan Abd-ul-Medjid (reigned 1839 - 1861). In 1844 he had the court workshops moved back from Cairo to Hereke. Hand-knotted Hereke silk rugs are among the finest rugs in the world and are knotted at densities of up to 6 million knots per m². Thanks to the knotting technique, incidentally, the pattern is just as clearly visible on the back as it is on the front. At renowned art auction houses, antique Turkish rugs fetch top prices.

Typical motifs on Hereke rugs are flowers, branches and leaves, as well as birds, the tree of life and the so-called mehrab or mihrab pattern, a prayer niche shown together with oil lamps. Alongside traditional motifs and typically Ottoman or Turkish patterns, Hereke silk rugs are today also knotted with more modern designs that suit contemporary taste. Typical colours for Hereke silk rugs are a deep dark blue, a radiant red, a lively green, a luminous yellow and various natural tones in every nuance. This fine silk rug comes from what is probably the most renowned workshop of all, Özipek.

Pattern

The paradise garden design is a stylised depiction of a traditional Persian garden. The Greek word "paradeisos" goes back to the Middle Persian word "pardēs". Originally the word referred to the Persian royal gardens, and only in the biblical context did it take on the connotation of the garden of God. The fertile, artfully laid-out royal gardens were home to a wide variety of exotic plants and animals. They are enclosed by a wall, symbolic of the separation between heaven and earth. Paradise gardens are places of veneration and symbols of status. Traditional Persian gardens were rectangular, with a river or body of water running from north to south and from east to west, forming a cross that divides the garden into four sections. Roofed pavilions or structures and raised walkways for viewing the garden from above were just as common as fountains and waterfalls symbolising eternal life. In rugs with a paradise garden motif – like this one – the depiction of water, so precious in arid regions, plays a prominent role.

The background of this Hereke is light brown. The border is worked in light brown, dark red and blue-grey.

Material

The silk of this Hereke's pile makes the colours of the pattern glow in different facets – depending on how the light falls. It turns this Hereke into a real highlight and creates an atmosphere in the room that is cosy and at the same time very elegant and refined. Silk is obtained by hand from the cocoons of the silkworm. Because the individual silk filaments are extremely long, very fine yarns can be spun that are light in weight and still tear-resistant. The fine yarn makes it possible to tie smaller knots and thus to create finer patterns. That is why the finest rugs in the world are hand-knotted from pure silk. In this Hereke even the foundation is made of pure silk. The fine yet hard-wearing material of the weft and warp threads allows for particularly fine knotting and therefore for a particularly fine pattern.