SMYRNA CARPET

any large, coarse carpet handwoven in western Anatolia and exported by way of Izmir (Smyrna). Probably, Smyrna carpets originally represented the production of the town of Usak, to which was added in the late 19th and early 20th centuries the large carpets newly developed at such centres as Ghiordes, Kula, and Demirci. The name Smyrna has been applied more specifically to a pattern, usually seen in small examples, that represents a degenerate form of a floral pattern used in the Ottoman court production of the 16th and 17th centuries. Since these 18th- or 19th-century Smyrna carpets are rare, it is probable that more imitations than originals exist.