Multicolor Balıkesir Selendi Handwoven Wool Kilim

Two place names sit on this kilim: Balıkesir, the northwestern province it was woven in, and Selendi, the manner it follows. A handwoven wool flatweave, 192 × 246 cm (6'4" × 8'1"), multicolored, worked in cicim so the motifs stand above the ground, and kept in a chest rather than walked on. The colors have the saturation only a stored piece keeps.

01The Wool on the surface

Reds are still reds and not the pinks fifty years of window light would have made of them, and the cream between the motif rows has not gone to the yellow that fades into old wool. Because the drawing is raised rather than woven flat into the ground, every figure has a thin line of shadow along one edge, and that shadow separates one color from the next as much as the colors do. Made by hand, in wool, in Türkiye.

02The origin of the pattern

Selendi is regional shorthand for a particular density and motif set rather than for a single design, and a piece can carry the manner without having been made in the town itself — this one carries a manner and a province, which is more information than most old kilims arrive with. It has never been used and it shows: firm, square-edged, entirely unrelaxed.

03When you walk in

Have it washed professionally before it takes any weight. Handwoven in wool in Balıkesir province, northwestern Türkiye. Selendi manner — a regional density and motif set rather than one fixed design. Cicim construction: raised motifs on a plain flat ground, each with a shadow edge. Multicolored and unfaded, having been stored out of the light. 192 × 246 cm (6'4" × 8'1") — a sitting room, or a dining table with room to push chairs back. Firm and unrelaxed; it takes time under furniture to settle. Professional washing before use. One piece. It arrives at the beginning of its working life rather than the end of it, which is the opposite of what an old kilim usually offers.