The Caucasian rugs are characterized by their prominent borders and their purely geometrical patterns with sharp outlines. Both warp and woof are usually of wool excepting in some of the Kabistans and Shirvans and, as a rule, the ends are finished with loose or braided warp threads. The predominating colors are the blues and yellows. They are seldom made in large sizes. Some of the most characteristic designs are the eight-pointed star of the Medes, the six-pointed star of the Mohammedans, the triangle, the diamond, the latch hook, the barber-pole stripe, the tarantula, the swastika, the reciprocal trefoil, the link-in-lozenge and the tree of life.
DAGHESTAN
Why So Named.—Daghestan means "mountain land" and is the name of a district in Caucasian Russia on the Caspian Sea. It has a population of 600,000.
Knot.—Ghiordes. Number vertically ten to fifteen; number horizontally eight to fourteen; number to square inch eighty to two hundred ten.
Warp.—Usually wool, being as a rule a dark brown or natural color in the antiques and white or gray in the moderns. Some of the moderns have a combination of cotton and wool. The warp threads may be composed of one strand of cotton and one of wool in such a way as to cause a puckering of the fabric, especially after it has been wet.
DAGHESTAN RUG
OWNED BY A. U. DILLEY & CO.
Woof.—In the moderns nearly always cotton. In the antiques usually white or gray wool or a mixture of the two.