Burgundy and Navy Yağcıbedir Hand-Knotted Wool Rug

Sındırgı, in the Balıkesir highlands, is where the Yağcıbedir pattern settled after the Yörük herders carried it up from the Taurus range — and this is a hand-knotted Yağcıbedir rug in that tradition, 110 × 173 cm (3'7" × 5'8"), wool pile on a wool foundation, navy and burgundy with occasional white.

01Reading the motif

Navy stands for the night in this vocabulary and burgundy for fire. Strong star motifs hold the center, flower forms surround them and narrow borders close the whole thing in — a drawing that has come down effectively unchanged for generations, which is why a Yağcıbedir is recognizable across a room.

02Which tone on the ground

The two dominant colors are laid on at full saturation and the small white details are the only relief; they are what makes the stars legible against the navy. At this size the rug is traditionally used as a prayer rug, or at the foot of a bed, and even a small piece brings a definite weight of tradition with it. Wool on wool is the older construction, and it makes for a rug that is heavier in the hand and more flexible than a cotton-founded one.

03At the loom in in Türkiye

The knotting is dense — Yağcıbedir weaving sits at the top of its class for count and yarn quality — and the type now carries a Turkish geographical indication tied to the Sındırgı district. Fewer are made each year. A rug this size will take a domestic vacuum easily, but leave washing to a professional. Hand-knotted wool on a wool foundation, in the Yağcıbedir tradition of Sındırgı, Balıkesir. 110 × 173 cm (3'7" × 5'8") — prayer-rug size, or for a bedside. Navy and burgundy dominant, with sparing white detail. Star motifs at the center, flower forms around them, narrow multiple borders. A pattern carried by Yörük weavers from the Taurus mountains and unchanged for generations. Protected by a Turkish geographical indication for the Sındırgı district. Vacuum at home; wash through a specialist. What is a Yağcıbedir rug? Yağcıbedir rugs are woven in the Sındırgı district of Balıkesir in western Türkiye, by families descended from Yörük herders.

04The origin of the pattern

They are wool on wool, densely knotted, and use a fixed vocabulary of star and flower motifs in navy and burgundy. The type carries a Turkish geographical indication. Can this rug be used as a prayer rug? Yes.

05Comes from from Anatolia

At 110 by 173 centimeters it is the size traditionally woven for prayer, and pieces of these proportions have been used that way in Anatolian households for generations. It works equally as a bedside rug or in a small entrance. Small, dark and old-fashioned in the best sense — it will outlive the room it goes into first.