CARPET WEAVERS AND WEAVING IN THE ... - Cornell University

As Landreau points out, “material changes in rug production clearly mirror
social change” (Landreau 1996, 11). This was likely the case since the inception of
carpet weaving and is therefore likely the case today as well. Both the tourist market
and the export market have changed the patterns and dimension of carpets. Factors
influencing these changes have included the needs of the antique market, the
requirements of the tourist market, and the actual or perceived aesthetics of global
(mainly western) consumers. These factors have influenced design and construction
of carpets most likely from the fist time a woman wove a carpet for sale outside of her
community. They are moderated by the ways in which the designer (weaver, dealer or
other manager) perceives customer desire. For a weaver this may be through seeing
what dealers buy (Breu and Marchese 1999, 244), or what is being sold (and bought)
at local markets. For a dealer this may be looking at what sells best for them and for a
manager there may be other methods of gauging customer desire. Weavers, in the case
of petty-commodity production, and those who decide on patterns under the workshop
and putting-out system, respond not only to market demand, but to perceived market
demand that may or may not reflect the actual desires of the market.
In the 1960s customers seeking Turkish carpets were mainly interested in
antiques. In order to sell carpets, dealers who did not have access to antique carpets
“aged” new rugs in order to pass them off as older carpets. This involved bleaching
the carpets and cutting back the black yarns that were worn away in genuine antiques
due to the tin used as a mordant in the dye (Jirousek 1994, 229). Eventually dealers
stopped selling such carpets as antiques, but bleaching carpets and cutting back the
black yarns had become a routine part of the finishing process (Jirousek 1994, 233)
and possibly something that foreigners expected to see when they went to buy Turkish
carpets (see Figure 2.4). In this way dealers and customers helped shape the current
concepts of “authentic” Turkish carpets.
32