Antique Shirvan kilim, Azerbaijan.

Three cobalt blue horizontal bands each hold three complete red hexagons containing massively hooked cruciform motifs in white and turquoise, these alternating with two slightly narrower red bands of monumental kotshak-hooked cruciforms, six ivory stripes with geometric ribbon meanders running between. In his commentary on a related example, Bennett notes that this type of East Caucasian kelim with blue and red bands of almost equal width decorated with cruciform-centred hexagons and free-standing hooked cruciforms respectively represents a distinctive group within the Shirvan kelim classification; this resplendent specimen represents this unusually specific design at the pitch of its archaic power. The sober harmonies of its colour, the majestic grandeur of its ornaments and the incomparable elegance of their presentation leave nothing to be desired; the decisive patterns the primary motifs establish within their background is a certain indication of the item’s decorative achievement. Kerimov publishes a flat-woven Armenian khordjin (saddlebag) using similar motifs to similar effect.

Lit.: Ian Bennett: Oriental Rugs Volume I – Caucasian, pl. 448; A.N. Landreau/W.R. Pickering: From the Bosporus to Samarkand – Flat-woven Rugs, No. 8 (Pickering Collection); L. Kerimov et al: Rugs and Carpets from the Caucasus, No. 105