Prevailing Colors.—Green usually forms the background of the main border. The field is usually dark blue, soft red or ivory. Yellow is used considerably in the modern ones.
Dyes.—Splendid in the antiques. Of inferior quality in the moderns.
Designs.—Herati field the most common. Occasionally the Guli Hinnai is employed. Sometimes a centre of plain red medallions. There may be a repetition of some small figures throughout the field. All animal and bird designs in the Feraghans are represented as in motion.
Sizes.—Usually small sizes, three to four by four to six. Occasionally carpet sizes. Antiques mostly oblong.
Prices.—Antiques $2.50 to $10.00 per square foot. Moderns $1.00 to $2.50.
Remarks.—They rank among the best fabrics of Persia, but of late years have fallen to the joblot level. The antiques are soft, durable and heavy, but are scarce.
THE EXAMPLE ILLUSTRATED
Owner's Description.—The typical Feraghan rendering of the Herati pattern is here illustrated in which the dark blue field and green main border carry the Persian variant of the Herati design, which is popularly known as the "fish pattern," and which is copied with more or less accuracy all through central Persia.
Hommel Rug (page [114]).—Knot: Ghiordes; number to the inch, vertically nine; horizontally seven; to the square inch, sixty-three.
The field, like that of the majority of Feraghans, is covered with the Herati design. The background is of black and the figures are red, blue, green, pink, yellow and white.
The main border stripe carries eight-petaled flowers of various colors, connected by the fish-bone motif upon a ground of white. On either side of this is a flower and vine design in various colors, the inner one on a ground of old rose and the outer one on a ground of dark brown. The inner and outer border stripes carry the reciprocal saw-teeth; the former in blue and red and the latter in green and red.
The nap is about three-quarters of an inch in length and is exceedingly glossy.