KURDISTAN RUG
(MINA KHANI DESIGN)
PROPERTY OF THE TIFFANY STUDIOS, NEW YORK CITY
KULAH HEARTH RUG
Size 7'2" × 4'4"
BY COURTESY OF NAHIGIAN BROS., CHICAGO, ILL.
Owners' Description.—No rug of any type that has come to our notice has had a color tone that was so subdued and mellow as this rug.
The artist who conceived and created this masterpiece seems to have woven into it a suggestion of his dreamy nature. He used shades where others would have used colors and the result is a beautiful study in browns.
The points at both ends of the field indicate its use as a hearth rug or family rug, an heirloom about which one generation after another gathered and told and retold the tales of their ancestors. It is such rugs as this that were the sanctuary in that turbulent land; strangers were far from safe, and especially members of some opposing tribe, but let them once gain access to the tent in which was spread the hearth rug, and let them place foot upon it, and they became at once the guest of not only the chief but his whole tribe, and the entire tribe was pledged to their safe keeping until they had been safely sped upon their way.
The narrow ribbon stripes on the border of this rug, with the small floral conceits woven throughout them, are typical of the old Kulahs.