East Mediterranean Ottoman Compartment chess-board pattern carpet, Victoria and Albert Museum, London

Place of origin: Turkey (made)
Date: 15th century (made)
Museum number: 455-1884
Gallery location: In Storage

Physical description
15th century Carpet, chess-board pattern
Areas of repair clearly visible from the back.

WARP: white (wool?); Z2S; possibly dyed green at the ends; 17-20 threads per inch (66-80 per dm); depressed.
WEFT: light red wool; Z-spun, unplied; 2 shoots after each row of knots; 7-8 knots per inch (30 knots per dm).
PILE: Wool; 7 colours: red, light yellow, green, dark blue, blue, dark brown, white; asymmetrical knot open to the left and tied around 2
threads; average of 70 knots per sq. inch (average 1095 per sq. dm).
SIDE FINISH: 4 cords overcast with red wool; the weft goes around only the innermost cord.
END FINISH: missing.

DESIGN: Field: red ground with rows of alternating, offset quartered diamonds and stars, both filled with floral and symmetrically placed
geometric motifs. There are 8 pairs of small inward-facing cypress trees around each star in either blue or green and thus in contrast to the
star. The 2 vertical lines through the complete stars and the horizontal within each, create the grid effect.
Main border: green ground with cartouches alternating with slightly pointed roundels linked with tracery similar to that found in Ushaks and
Lottos. The corners are 'designed' and have a square in each one.
Inner border and outer border (sides only): blue ground with an angular meander.
Museum number: 455-1884
URL: http://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O122047/carpet/