Image Carpets

Antique Sileh Kilim – 160602

This is a rare type of flatwoven eastern Caucasian carpet with a characteristic pattern of S-shaped dragons, all identically oriented, here four by four in ivory (cotton) and navy (wool) soumac stitch. Heads and tails are vestigial, but the scale patterns are rendered in a tiny cursive S repeat. The carpet, as in almost all Sileh pieces, was woven in two halves and then joined together along the central seam. This characteristic example is in excellent condition and was probably  originally used as a wall hanging or a portable room divider. The alternation of light and dark dragons is standard. The narrow keyhole reciprocal border  barely contains the vigourous animal energy of the dragons. The dragon Sileh carpet seems to be a mid-19th century innovation and the iconography became formalised quite quickly. The product must have been popular almost immediately with good examples, as here, coming from the second half of the 19th century.