A genuine hand-woven Anatolian saddlebag, known in Turkish as a heybe. Woven in one continuous piece with a pocket at each end and a flat bridge between them that rested over the animal's back, this is a working nomadic textile rather than a tourist reproduction.
Both pocket faces are hand-knotted wool pile on a wool foundation, worked in a deep aubergine-red field with a stylized tree of life motif in ivory, flanked by geometric star and hooked medallions in teal, violet, and cobalt. The center bridge carries two smaller pile panels with cream-ground borders and running-S meanders, and the reverse of each pocket is a banded flatweave (kilim) in orange, olive, purple, magenta, and indigo stripes. Selvages are hand-wrapped in an alternating two-color barber-pole twist, and original multicolored wool tassels run the full length of both edges.
The wool is dense with excellent pile retention and the colors are strong and saturated. Both pockets remain fully intact and sewn — most surviving heybes have been cut apart into two separate pillow faces, so a complete uncut example like this is increasingly hard to find.
Condition: Very good vintage condition. Pile is full and even. Some gentle uneven fading in the purple flatweave bands, consistent with age and typical of the period. All tassels present. Ready to hang, display over a bench or chair back, or use as a magazine and storage piece.