KIRSHEHR RUG

handwoven floor covering, usually in a prayer design and made in Kirsehir (Kirshehr), a town between Ankara and Kayseri in central Turkey. The typical Kirshehr prayer rug of the 19th century has an elaborately stepped arch above a prayer-niche design that might be fringed with tiny carnations in profile and contain a smaller, concentric niche similarly outlined but having a contrasting colour. The colour scheme is remarkably rich, with such hues as cherry red, yellow, violet, light blue, prominent greens, terra-cotta, and black brown. Some of the later rugs show influence of the French Empire style, and the palette eventually degenerated from the use of unsubtle aniline dyes.