Hereke carpet

The materials used are silk, a combination of wool and cotton, and sometimes gold or silver threads.

[1][2] The Ottoman sultan Abdülmecid I founded the Hereke Imperial Manufacture in 1841 to produce all the textiles for his Dolmabahçe Palace on the Bosphorus.

[3] After completing work on the Dolmabahçe Palace, the Ottoman sultans used to give Hereke carpets as gifts to selected visiting royalty, noblemen and statesmen.

The precision of their double knots (Turkish or Ghiordes knots), which allows the clear display of patterns, together with the colour combinations and the harmonious patterns, have made them highly collectible.

But today, especially the wool produced by Sümerhalı is given a mothproof property with a special finish before the fleece is dyed.

The carpets woven on these looms are trimmed at appropriate height in special pile machines in the Isparta Sümer carpet factory, washed, their backs are cleaned from excess lengths with flame and classified according to their quality and released to the market.

When buying a Hereke carpet, care should be taken that the wool does not gush out from weft and warp on the back, and the pattern does not slip.