Oushak

"Oushak (alternatively spelled Ushak or Usak) Small town east of Kula and Demirci. Since the fifteenth century the most famous and important rug producing centre of Turkey. Particularly well-known are those types of carpets designated by their designs - 'Large Medallion Ushak', 'Small Medallion' or 'Double iche Ushak', 'Star Ushak' and several variants, 'Arabesque' or 'Lotto' rugs and so on. Recent research has indicated that the earliest Ushak rugs were probably made in the second half of the fifteenth century as Imperial commissions, but that production on a large scale was geared mainly to export by the beginning of the sixteenth century. Ushak rugs appear frequently in sixteenth and seventeenth century European paintings; there is a group of portraits of King Henry VIII of England and members of his family standing on several different well-known types. Some carpets can be extremely large, between seven and nine metres in length.

It is assumed that the famous Transylvanian 'double niche' rugs and prayer rugs with cartouche borders, were also woven in the Ushak region. The assumption is based on the close structural similarities and also to the presence of large numbers of rugs in well known Ushak designs in the same location. The town is also famous for a group of seventeenth century safs which were found in the mosque at Edirne early this century, and fragments of which are now to be found in various private and public collections throughout the world, the best group being in the Turk ve Islam Museum, Istanbul. In the late eighteenth century Ushak once again became an important center of production for commercial carpets intended primarily for export to the West. It has continued in this role well into the twentieth century. Large quantities were exported through Smyrna (Izmir) and were known as 'Smyrna' or 'Turkey' carpets in Europe; in the United States they were more accurately called Ushaks." - from Oriental Rugs Volume 4 - Turkish by K.Zipper & C.Fritzsche