An Oushak Pictural Rug

Unusual Pictural Oushak Rug. Greek mythology story. Probably Armenian Rug. Antique Turkish Oushak rugs have been woven in Western Turkey since the beginning of the Ottoman period. Historians attributed to them many of the great masterpieces of early Turkish carpet weaving from the fifteenth to the seventeenth centuries. However, less is known about what happened to production there in the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. When things become clearer toward 1900, the Oushak region re-emerges as a major center, this time for room-size decorative rugs. Antique Turkish 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, often a subdued palette in soft apricot and golden saffron tones whose pleasing qualities are enhanced by their particularly soft and lustrous wool.