Antique Turkish Herekeh Large Carpet

A wool pile on a cotton foundation. This is one of the rare, extremely large carpets woven in the Hereke workshop, formerly the Imperial Carpet Factory, near the old Ottoman capital of Istanbul. The allover Herati field pattern, set on an olive ground, features barbed lancet leaves, petal palmettes, open diamonds, and ‘hand’ palmettes. Although the pattern subtly shifts toward one end, the execution is precise and controlled, with no room for stylistic innovation. The red border neatly turns the corners and showcases sickle leaves between nested octofoil rosettes. Finely woven with a depressed warp in the finest Tabriz manner.