This is a ‘Gümüşlü At Heybesi’ (Saddle bags for a horse, with silver(y) decoration). The chains and plaques are generally real silver, although the one on the right side (down) seems to be made of the cheaper ‘alpaka’ (nickel silver, a silvery-coloured alloy of 60% copper, 20% nickel and 20% zinc). These saddle bags date probably from the first half of the 20th century. The silver chains may be somewhat older.

This ‘heybe’ is made of a flat-woven woollen fabric that has been strengthened with a leather frame.
The fabric is a special one, produced in Southeast-Anatolia and generally of Kurdish origin; it is called ‘cacim’ (pronounced “jajim”). Unlike the kilim technique, where designs are made by using wefts of different colours, the ‘cacim’ technique uses warps of different colours; the weft defines which colour to be visible, and which not, thus creating the design. The width of a ‘cacim’ fabric does not exceed 40 cm.

Correspondent: J.M.Criel, Antwerpen.
Source: ‘Mahalli El Sanatlarımız’ – TC Milli Eğitim Gençlik ve Spor Bakanlıgı, Ankara, 1986
& The Kavak Collection of Anatolian Rugs and Weavings, Antwerpen/Belgium.