Ushak Rugs
Antique Ushak rugs have been woven in Western Turkey since the beginning of the Ottoman period. Many of the great masterpieces of early Turkish carpet weaving from the fifteenth to the seventeenth centuries have been attributed to antique Ushak rugs. Less, however, is known about what happened to production there in the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. Around the 1900s, Ushak re-emerges as a major center, this time for room-size pieces. Turkish Ushak carpets such as these are desirable today as highly decorative pieces. They come in central medallion designs as well as patterns of smaller allover medallions or scattered sprays of vine scroll and palmettes. They are notable for the grand, monumental scale of the designs. They have soft and lustrous wool.
Although the Ghiordes knot and the quirky angular designs have a certain primitive air, regional rugs are exceptionally unique and attractive.
Ushak Rugs and carpets have become the rugs of choice for many of the top interior decorators in the world today. Ushak rugs for the most part are not high quality rugs but that is what makes them so special. Since the knot count is considerably lower than the antique rugs made in Persia – antique Turkish rugs were woven with larger scale patterns. Antique Ushak carpets are also extremely desirable because of their colors – which are usually much lighter and “happier” in feel than rugs from other regions.
