Karapinar abundance kilim rug - medium

Elevate your interior in Anatolian style with this stunning vintage kilim rug. Featuring stylised female figures against a deep red background, the rug was made by hand in the village of Karapinar using traditional techniques passed down over centuries.

A carrier of visual narrative and collective memory, each one-of-a-kind rug features symbolic patterns, their powerful meanings woven into the fabric of the piece. Female forms with their hands on their hips, or elibelinde, represent femininity, motherhood, fertility and abundance. The evil eye, or nazarlik, functions as a shield against the ancient curse of a malevolent glare.

Kilim rugs carry the fingerprint of their maker, with each element from weave to geometric alignment, dye tones to decorative design, bearing the hallmarks of the region where the rug was made and the textile traditions of that area. Karapinar lies in the Konyar region, on the great trade route leading from China to Constantinople. Some of the oldest surviving examples of flatweave carpets come from this area, their diversity of pattern reflecting the individual styles specific to each village of the region.

Kilim weaving was traditionally practised by women using techniques passed from mother to daughter, working without drawing boards or fixed templates, making each piece a unique expression of the maker’s artistry. This piece was made using the cicim method, a supplementary flat-weave technique where decorative pattern threads are added onto a plain-weave ground fabric to create a colourful raised design that sits proud of the surface.

Selected by the V&A, each piece has been sourced and professionally cleaned by a specialist partner.