Oriental Rugs, Antique and Modern

by W. A. Hawley

Plate 47. Kazak Prayer Rug

Tcherkess.—The narrow strip of fertile and beautiful country that reaches from the Kuban valley southward along the shore of the Black Sea for a distance of two hundred miles is occupied by a people known to the western world as Circassians. In their own land they are called “Tcherkesses,” a Tartar term for “cutter of roads” or highwaymen; and they have been in the habit of speaking of themselves as “Adighies” or Nobles. In fact, there has been no prouder Caucasian race, even though their homes were often log huts and their daughters were sold in the markets of Constantinople. These are the people, who half a century ago finally yielded after a long, fierce struggle for independence; but a hundred thousand families, preferring exile to submission to the Czar, migrated to Armenia and Asia Minor, where they intermarried with other races, and are rapidly losing their identity.

Very few of the Circassian or Tcherkess rugs have been woven by those who left their country. The best were made before the exodus; and on account of the hardships and poverty of the people, many that have come to the market within recent years are greatly inferior to the excellent pieces of former times and are often mistaken for the work of nomadic tribes. Not only so, but crude and foreign devices have crept into some of them. It is, therefore, to the older pieces that we must turn for a better understanding of this class.

Something of the ruggedness of lives spent in struggles with men and nature found expression in the fabrics, which show firmness of texture, boldness of design, richness of colour. In fact they resemble the Kazaks so closely in their long nap, and finish of sides and ends that they are constantly mistaken for them; yet they may be distinguished from all classes by the large amount of brownish red or tawny colour of the field and their stereotyped patterns. These usually consist of diamond-shaped figures sometimes called “sun-bursts,” that are often regarded as crude copies of the Russian coat of arms; but there is little doubt that they have been derived from the medallions of some old Armenian rugs of the XIV and XV Centuries, in which also appear the same tri-cleft leaves so common in both this class and the Soumaks. These patterns are sufficiently large to occupy the full breadth of the field; and there are seldom less than two and occasionally as many as four or five extending from one end to the other. The strong contrast between the blue and ivory of the figures and the red or tawny colour of the ground is softened by the depth of pile, which in turn adds warmth and richness. The borders are always of three stripes. The main one almost invariably has the tarantula design and is enclosed by guards with the serrated sawtooth design. Many of these old pieces are excellently woven and have a dignity of pattern and wealth of harmonious colour rarely seen in nomadic rugs.

Type Characteristics. Colours, principally red and tawny yellow, with minor quantities of blue and white. Knot, Ghiordes. Knots to inch horizontally six to nine; perpendicularly, seven to ten. A half knot, as it appears at back, is as long as wide or longer. The rows of knots are firmly pressed down, so that the warp does not show at back. Warp, wool; generally each of the two threads encircled by a knot is equally prominent at back, occasionally one is depressed below the other. Weft, wool of medium diameter. A thread of weft usually crosses only twice between every two rows of knots, but in some pieces as many as four or six times. Pile, wool of medium length. Border, three stripes. Sides, a two-cord double selvage. Both ends, as a rule have a web, a heavy braided selvage, and knotted warp fringe; occasionally either web or selvage may be omitted. Texture, very firm. Weave at back of medium grain. Usual length, five to ten feet. Usual width, one half to two thirds length.

Bakus.—No other rugs of Caucasia have greater individuality of colour and design than the Bakus. This, perhaps, is partly due to the fact that the district from which they come is dissimilar to any other. It consists largely of the peninsula of scanty vegetation, where the great mountain chain extends to the dreary Caspian, leaving at its base the narrow strip of land now famous for its immense accumulations of mineral oil. Hither, during the past, the followers of Zoroaster have come from all directions to worship in the temple of the Guebres, where day and night the priests watched the blue flame that rose perpetually from the ground, and once in long intervals spread over the waters like a sea of fire. This sacred spot has been owned in turn by Saracens, Persians, Turks, Russians, and the Princes of Shirvan; so that the influences of different religions and different races have been felt here.

The most noticeable feature of many of these rugs is their dull colours, that give the impression of being partly bleached or having faded. There are subdued tones of light blue, tan, pale ocherous yellow, and black, as well as light, medium, and dark brown colours of natural wool; but in the rugs woven a century ago the colours were much richer. None of them are used in large masses excepting for the underground; nor are there striking contrasts, so that the effect is somewhat monotonous.

COLOUR PLATE VIII—SOUMAK RUG

The shape, colouring, and particularly the pattern of this interesting Soumak, which was probably woven seventy-five or more years ago, not only are unusual but belong to a higher type than is often seen. Arranged in diagonal rows on a field of red are flowering bushes, that for the most part are blue and pink, but at one end are green, yellow, and brown. The accurate drawing of these bushes and of the reciprocal trefoils of the guard stripes, the care with which the stitches have been inserted, and the fine texture of the wool, as is shown even in the cream-white warp at the knotted ends, alike proclaim the excellent quality of this rare piece.

Loaned by Mr. Theodore S. Hawley