Vintage Sivas kilim rug - 292 x 90 cm

Sivas stretches across the heart of the Anatolian plateau, a land of wide open spaces where weavers rhythmed their kilims as one rhythms a march, a band, a pause, a band. This runner, woven some 60 years ago, keeps that cadence intact, six segments separated by coral edgings, each carrying a hexagonal medallion flanked by two small diamond rosettes, like amulets sown along the path to protect whoever was moving forward.

The ground shifts in tone with each band, slate grey streaked with pink, then olive, then a water green almost faded by time, so many stages of the same journey that the weaver seems to have wanted to tell rather than simply weave. This kilim has the elegant sobriety of long and narrow pieces, conceived originally to accompany a step through a house or a tent, and that still carry the memory of that quiet march.

One of a kind.