back to
"Early Karabagh rugs and carpets" main page
|
Early Karabagh or Kuba rug, 17th–18th century. Safavid Period, Azerbaijan. Wool (warp, weft and pile); symmetrically knotted pile. Dimensions: H. 158 in. (401.3 cm) W. 74 1/4 in. (188.6 cm). The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Rogers Fund, 1908, Accession Number 08.234.2 |
|
|
|
A carpet with no proper ground color, unless it be the ivory white of the spandrels, for its design is made up of concentric stepped bands, each with a minutely serrated edge, in emulation of the more graceful arrangement in its prototypes. These bands differ in color, like the superimposed layers of an old-fashioned cloth penwiper. The central toothed diamond is ivory, edged with a tan which may have once been orange. It is ornamented with four palmettes, of which two are red, two blue. Beyond the tan the order of colors of the bands is: a greenish light medium blue, edged with ivory; rose; dull violet, both edged with ivory; rose, edged with blue; a very pale dull yellow, edged with blue; rose edged with blue. Each band is decorated with a scattering of palmettes, stick-like stems and buds, with occasional tiny geometric bird forms. In the spandrels, or corners are miserably drawn cypresses: at the top, light blue abrashed medium blue, and edged with red; at the bottom, a greenish light medium blue, edged with red, with red trunks. Spotted violet bulls stand on their heads, while several varieties of goat stare upwards amid tiny bird forms. The single-stripe border at the sides carries a very hard and precise vine that is seen more frequently in early dragon rugs. A variation of it occurs in Plate 20. The end borders have been scavenged from another carpet, probably a dragon rug which has also been levied upon for several patches in the field. These border strips are pieced, and to a considerable extent had originally served as runs of side border. Their pattern may be compared with that of the dragon carpet, Plate 1. It is not clear whether the field has been reduced slightly at the top. The original "Portuguese" carpets upon which this very individual carpet has been based, together with several additional Persian and Caucasian copies, have recently been dealt with in a specific article, Ellis 1972. The author has since found two similar rough Persian copies in the storage of the Museum of Turkish and Islamic Art, rather than one. Dr. Schuyler Cammann has hastened to add his viewpoint to the literature (1972: pp. 33-35). It is still not clear whether these originals were produced in India or in Persia. Size: L. 4.00 m. (13'1") x W. 1.82 m. (6'0"). Warp: Z2S wool in a light mixture of natural shades which includes a few dark and very dark fibers. Alternate warps depressed. Weft: Z2S wool in a light mixture dyed light red in part-Two shots. At variable intervals heavy single shots, quite noticeable on the face of the rug, as bare horizontal streaks. Intervals 21/2 to 3 1/2, some only 1". Closer together near bottom of rug. Pile: 2Z, wool. Gordes knotted, pile slanting to left. 8 1/2 horiz. x 8 1/2 vert, per in. (72 per sq.in.). Sides: Cut. Ends: Cut. Colors: Ivory; black-brown; tan; dull pale: yellow; rose red; dark medium and light blues; light medium blue-blue-green; dull light violet (abrashed dark medium violet). Condition: End borders supplied from a different carpet. Several patched holes. Published: Valentiner 1910: No. 5; Hawley 1936: Pl. 19; Ellis 1972: Fig. 19; Dimand and Mailey 1973; Fig. 229. Charles Ellis, Early Caucasian Rugs, Textile Museum, Washington D.C., 1975, plate 31 |
