Multicolor Anatolian Handwoven Tülü Runner Kilim

Sixty to a hundred years is the age the house puts on this one, which sets it between semi-antique and antique in the trade's own reckoning — conventions the rug business uses with no authority issuing them.

01At the loom in in Anatolia

A multicolor Anatolian tülü runner, handwoven in wool in Türkiye, 100 × 335 cm (3'3" × 10'11"), with orange running through it. A tülü is not a kilim and not a knotted rug: it is a long-pile Anatolian weaving in which loops of unspun or barely spun wool are worked into a flatwoven ground and left standing, giving a shaggy, uneven surface with a knot count far below that of a village rug.

02The origin of the pattern

They were made for sleeping and sitting on rather than for display, which is why the drawing on them is loose and the color arrangement is closer to improvisation than to a pattern. Anatolian motifs appear, but interrupted, and the length of the pile blurs their edges further. Sandık eskisi is the Turkish phrase for it — literally chest-old, a piece kept folded in a dowry chest and taken out only for guests, which is how a wool weaving survives this long at all.

What comes with that history is real. Expect creases where it was folded for decades, some flattening in the pile, and color that has moved unevenly. A hundred by three hundred and thirty-five centimeters puts it squarely in a corridor, and at this age it should be washed by someone who handles old wool and nobody else.

03Coming off the loom

When this goes there is not another with these particular sixty years in it. What is a tülü? A tülü is a long-pile Anatolian weaving in which loops of thick, barely spun wool are worked into a flatwoven ground and left standing. The result is shaggy and uneven, with a much lower knot density than a village rug, and it was made to be slept and sat on rather than looked at. What does sandık eskisi mean? It translates as chest-old: a piece that was kept folded away in a dowry chest and brought out only for guests.

04Which tone on the ground

That is the usual explanation for how a wool weaving reaches sixty or a hundred years in usable condition, and it also explains the fold lines such pieces arrive with. Handwoven in wool in Türkiye; the house dates it at 60 to 100 years. Tülü construction: long loops of thick wool standing on a flatwoven ground. 100 × 335 cm (3'3" × 10'11") — corridor proportions. Multicolored with orange dominant, in a loose Anatolian drawing. Sandık eskisi: kept folded in a chest, which is why it survived. Fold creases, flattened pile and uneven color come with the age. Trade age terms are conventions with no issuing authority behind them. Washing by someone who works on old wool. Whoever wove this was making something to sleep on, and it has outlived every rug that was made to be admired.