19th century Reyhanli - Aleppo area ‘balpeteği’ honeycomb dowry kilim No. 0460

Rare type of 19th century Syrian ‘balpeteği’ or honeycomb kilim from the Aleppo Reyhanli area. There have been suggestions that the each half of such a kilim was woven by the two families of a prosepctive partners in marraige and that possibly the right hand side of this kilim, with its added magical motifs, was the bride’s side and the motifs or symbols woven to wish her protection and good fortune in her new life. The right kilim hand panel is about 15cm wider than the left panel and has 120 of these symbols mostly added in çiçim embroidery technique, whereas the eft panel has on twelve. The right panel also includes six distinctly Malatya style tribal guls in its honeycombs (see row 8, photo 3) which are totally absent in the left panel perhaps indicating a different tribal inheritance on the part of the weaver of this panel. There has been little research done on such marriage or dowry kilims, and if it is not too late, it would be a valuable addition to research to gather oral evidence on this subject. In good condition with original fringes. See below Petsopoulos book ‘Kilims’ plates 206 and 207. 318cm x 168cm excluding 30cm fringes at both ends. #0460 Please enquire. SOLD

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