I recently placed a genuine Hereke carpet for sale on ebay and someone on this forum, using a false description and false details of the transaction, has queried the rug's authenticity. I would like members to look at the pictures on ebay, description and Certificate of Authenticity and tell me if this is a genuine Hereke or not.
SPECIFICATION OF CARPET
The carpet is hand made from pure silk and is approximately 6ft x 9ft in size.
It was made in Hereke, near Istanbul, by the Ginar family. This family has been famous since the 11th century for making carpets for past Sultans. The family name is woven into the edge of the carpet.
The traditional carpet pattern is called yayla gicegi, mountain flowers, and is made from over one million double gordes knots per square centimetre. This means that the carpet contains over five million knots and took the equivalent of five years of labour to hand weave it.
The carpet was purchased by myself in Turkey in July 2003. It was not purchased from a private person and a Certificate of Authenticity is available. According to the Government factory it is definitely NOT a Chinese copy.
Although this carpet was purchased as a long-term investment, due to retirement we now need to realise our assets. The carpet has not been walked upon and unrolled once only for photographing. More pictures are available.
Similar carpets are on sale in Harrods Knightsbridge store, London for between £18,000 and £40,000
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