2'1" x 4'10" Turkish Kayseri Rug | Pictorial Panels with Lion Birds and Cypress | Wool with Silk Highlights
Six small scenes stacked one above the other, like pages from an illustrated book: this 2'1" x 4'10" Turkish Kayseri is a storytelling rug. Birds perch among blossoms, a lion rears up in a hunt and cypress trees rise on grounds of sage, gold, rust and teal, all set inside an ivory border full of tiny running animals. It is a hand-knotted Oriental rug in wool with silk highlights on a cotton foundation, at 180 to 200 knots per square inch. It has been used and has since been professionally washed, so the colors are clean and the silk catches the light. The fringe is uneven and shows its years, as you can see in the photos. It comes with our certificate of authenticity.
Design and Motifs
The field is divided into 6 rectangular panels, each separated by a narrow rust band of small quatrefoil rosettes. Reading from the top: a sage green panel with a long-tailed bird beneath a flowering branch, and a camel gold panel where a long-necked crane stands under blossoms. Next comes a tan panel with a dark tree, a sweeping teal branch and a flower stem ending in chevron leaves. In the rust red panel, a feathery cypress lies on its side beneath a row of flower heads, with a small seated figure at one end. The butter yellow panel is the most dramatic: a lion rears up to attack a goat while a deer leaps past a slanting tree. The last panel, in teal, holds a large salmon cypress, a flowering pink branch and a small animal in the corner. The main border is ivory, filled with small pink running animals, birds and stylized plants. Rust guard stripes of rosettes frame it on both sides, finished with a thin crimson edge.
The Colors: Rust, Sage, Teal and Gold
Each panel has its own ground color, so the rug works like a sampler of warm and cool tones. The rust red panel is the strongest, a deep burnt orange-red with real glow. Sage green, soft and slightly grey, opens the top of the rug, and a deep teal anchors the bottom. Between them, camel gold, tan and butter yellow warm the middle panels. The motifs bring in salmon and coral for the cypress trees, dusty pink for the animals and blossoms, and chocolate brown for the trunks, birds and outlines. The ivory main border keeps the whole piece light, while the rust guard stripes and the thin crimson edge give it a warm frame. The silk highlights show most in the gold and ivory areas, where the pile shimmers as the light changes. The fringe is natural ivory cotton.
Kayseri: Weaving in the Heart of Anatolia
Kayseri is a historic city in central Anatolia, at the foot of Mount Erciyes, and one of Turkey's best-known rug weaving centers. Its workshops are known for fine wool, silk and art silk pieces, and for designs that range from classical florals to pictorial panels like this one. Panel compositions with birds, animals and trees are a favorite there, because each compartment can carry its own small scene and its own color. At 180 to 200 knots per square inch, this rug is woven tightly enough to give the lion a mane and the birds their tail feathers. The cotton foundation keeps it flat and stable. At 2'1" x 4'10" it fits an entry, sits beside a bed or in front of a sink, or works as a wall hanging where the panels can be read up close.
