The Practical Book of Oriental Rugs

by G. Griffin Lewis

DYES AND DYERS

The secrets of the Eastern dye-pot are responsible for the unrivalled beauty and durability of the Oriental rug. These secrets of extracting coloring matter from roots, leaves, flowers, barks, and various other vegetable and animal products by a process of boiling, fermenting, etc., were guarded religiously and descended from father to son, many of them having been lost as the family became extinct. Each dyer or family of dyers has some peculiar and secret method of producing certain shades.

Our great knowledge of chemistry has aided us little in our effort to duplicate and produce certain colors which the Orientals produced with the simplest ingredients and without any knowledge of chemistry whatever. Every kind of plant from which dyestuff is obtained is a product of geographic environment, the quality of which depends upon certain conditions of climate and soil. For this reason those of one locality may be superior to those of another. On the other hand it must not be forgotten that there are many classes of vegetable dyes which are not scientifically or honestly made.

After the wool has gone through the washing process and dried it is dipped into one or more pots, according to the shade desired, for a certain length of time, when, without being wrung out, it is hung up over the dye-pot to drip and after being washed once more in cold water it finally is spread out in the sun. Even when the same process is followed each time it is seldom that two bunches of material dyed have exactly the same shade, as the density of the dye and its shade differs somewhat with each dip of wool from a previous pot. This probably accounts in part for the innumerable shadings seen in the rugs of certain localities. Formerly the dyers employed as mordants, valonia, pomegranate rind, sumac, and the barks of certain trees, but in some districts of late they use alum. This, with the lime solution in which the wool is washed before dyeing to increase the brilliancy of the dyes, makes the yarn brittle and lessens its wearing quality. Most vegetable dyes fade, but they fade into softer and more pleasing shades. The best colors for service are, as a rule, the blues, yellows, and reds, all of which improve greatly with age. The browns are apt to lose their lustre, while the blacks, which are really mineral, being made by the action of vinegar on iron shavings, seem most corrosive and gradually eat the wool. Many of the antiques you will find in a splendid state of preservation with the exception of the black, which has eaten the pile down to the warp threads. Natural colored black and brown wools and brown camels' hair are frequently used and they are, of course, durable.

There is no doubt that the increasing demand in this country for the Eastern rug, together with the Russian influence in the Orient, tends towards more hasty commercial methods of manufacture and is, to a great extent, responsible for the introduction there of aniline dyes. The coal tar products have been readily accepted by the Eastern dyers, as they are cheaper, more easily used, and offer a greater number of brilliant shades, all of which appeal very much to the Oriental taste.

The aniline dyes are more commonly used through Asia Minor and, to some extent, in the Caucasus and even in Persia. In 1903 a law was enacted by the Persian government forbidding the importation of chemical dyes and seizing and destroying all fabrics in which they were used. It was also decreed that a dyer found guilty of using them would have his right hand cut off. The government has never been very strict in enforcing this law, else there would be at the present time many one-handed men in Persia.

As there is no such law in Asia Minor, fully seventy-five per cent. of the rugs now imported from that country are aniline dyed. The Kurdistan, Khorasan, and Kirman products, as well as those made by the Nomads in the Fars district of Persia, have been particularly free from outside influences and as a rule are honestly dyed.

The nomadic life of the Kurds in former times enabled them to gather plants more easily and so they were able to obtain good vegetable dyes. Now that they do not roam as much the result is, less vegetable and more aniline dyes. Formerly also, the best wool only was used by the Kurds for the making of rugs and the women chose only that which they knew would take the colors well. Now the men sell the best part of the wool and the women use what is left and press aniline dyes into service to hide any possible defect.

Some of the coal tar products will resist light, water, and air even better than many of the vegetable pigments, but the former have a tendency to make the wool fibres more brittle so that they break easily, while the latter preserve the wool and lengthen the life of the fabric.