Multicolor Handwoven Wool Village Kilim from Eşme

Village kilim, which in Turkish practice means a flatweave made at home rather than to order — this one from Eşme, a district of the Oushak region in western Anatolia, whose kilims have their own recognized character.

01From the hand of the weaver

Handwoven wool, multicolor, Anatolian motifs, 84 × 133 cm (2'9" × 4'4"), and the house dates it as old. Eşme sits in the same weaving country that gave the world Oushak rugs, and the kilims from its villages share that region's habit of drawing large and leaving air around the motifs rather than filling every space. A domestic flatweave was woven for a purpose: to cover a floor, to sit on, to fold over a chest, to hang across a doorway in winter.

02At the loom in in Anatolia

Nobody was weaving for a market, which is why village kilims are wider in their color choices and stranger in their proportions than anything made for sale. What makes a village kilim different from a workshop one? A village kilim was woven at home for the household's own use, on a narrow loom, with wool that the family spun and dyed. A workshop kilim was made to a drawing and a size for sale. The village piece is less regular, freer in its color, and usually more interesting to look at for exactly that reason. Handwoven wool kilim from Eşme, in the Oushak weaving region of western Anatolia. Flat-woven with no pile, and readable from both sides. Multicolor Anatolian motifs, drawn large with space around them. 84 × 133 cm (2'9" × 4'4"). An older piece, listed by the house among its rare items. Domestic weaving, so the proportions follow the loom rather than a market size. Age shows in the surface, and there is no pile to conceal it. Professional washing. Small kilims like this end up on walls more often than on floors now, which is a change of use the weaver would have found perfectly reasonable.