Vintage Afyon kilim – 148 × 90 cm

This Afyon kilim unfolds at its centre a long, tapering diamond in pearl grey, stretching almost from one end to the other of these 148 x 90 cm (4'10" × 2'11") like an almond laid upon the wool. A weaver slipped into it small ochre and sage fronds, open in mirrored pairs, framing a tiny medallion at their heart. All around, a salmon ground holds small hourglass motifs, while the dark border reveals that abrash, the black that shifts here and there to anthracite grey, the trace of a thread dyed in several stages.

There is in this piece, woven some 60 years ago, a particular serenity, that of the kilims of Western Anatolia which have never needed to impose themselves in order to be beautiful. The palette has faded with grace, the colours have dissolved into one another like a watercolour left out in the sun, and the result is exactly what one did not expect.

One of a kind.