From Mucur, 20th century carpet.
In Mucur (Central-Anatolia, 20 km west of Kırşehir) - almost exclusively – ‘seccade’ (prayer carpets) are knotted. The knotting is medium fine (1200-2400 knots per square decimetre); the pile is soft, shining wool. Typical of the designs of Mucur carpets are the interlaid prayer niches. The main border is often build-up in a casket-like way, and filled with geometric and floral patterns. The formats of the pieces are mostly ‘ceyreks’ (= ‘quarter’, meaning smaller than medium-sized). The oldest Mucur carpets in collections date from the second half of the 18th century.
The different shades of the purple in the central field is called ‘abraş’ (English: abrash). This is the natural and variable change in color that occurs in an Oriental rug over time when wool from successive artisan colourings (in the same colour) were used.
Correspondent: J.M.Criel, Antwerpen.
Sources: ‘Oriental Rugs, volume 4: Turkish’ (Zipper & Fritzsche) & Wikipedia.