Cicim from Anatolia, 68 x 51 cm (2'3" × 1'8"), approximately 65 years old. Across this ardent red ground, embroidered diamonds in Cicim technique chain together over the entire surface, their white outlines traced thread by thread with a precision that gives the whole a slight relief, almost tactile, like lace stretched over embers.
It is a rare format, almost intimate. A piece one hangs as readily as one lays down, gives as readily as one keeps. Within these 68 x 51 cm is concentrated the full craft of a technique that demands twice the time of an ordinary kilim, and shows it in every centimetre.
