Ca. 1800 or earlier, 395 x 154 cm, Eastern Central Anatolia

Collection VOK: Anatolia 66

In this two-panel kilim, ten large hooked diamonds arranged in pairs stand alone on the white surface of the field; smaller hooked designs are interspersed between them. The wide white-ground elems decorated with offset rows of elibelinde designs are stunningly beautiful in colour and in their precision of drawing. The different widths of the two kilim panels are a striking feature, creating an impression of the field design being offset to the left. Hirsch writes that hooked diamonds were an important cult symbol used by early farmers all over the Near East and Central Asia. As in the comparative piece published by Cootner, the wide red lateral sections and the field are sharply divided by a black-brown serrated contour band which forms reciprocal triangular gables. Like an insurmountable barrier, it protects the kilim’s interior from outer influences. According to Hirsch, this is another kilim that was used for a funeral and subsequently donated to the local mosque. – Signs of age and wear, stains. Backed with canvas.

COOTNER, CATHRYN & MUSE, GARRY, Anatolian Kilims. The Caroline & H. McCoy Jones Collection. (Exhibition catalogue) San Francisco - London 1990, pl. 40

VOK, IGNAZIO, Vok Collection. Anatolia. Kilims and other Flatweaves from Anatolia. (Text by Udo Hirsch) Munich 1997, no. 66