Rugs of the Week (Akstafa,Shirvan)

Two Very Interesting Caucasian Long Rugs.

#19752 Akstafa Rug, 4’0″ x 10’10”

#21711 Shirvan Rug , 3’8″ x 11’0″

Our Caucasian Blog only briefly sketched the range of types from this mountainous region of a thousand languages and ethnicity. Here are a couple a particularly interesting pieces that help to expand on our remarks.

Good things do not last at Rahmanan! Somebody else may be interested in these rugs, but you still have a chance. Anyway, you can still see why attention should be paid. Consider the Akstafa. Our Caucasian Rug blog of last week did not mention Akstafa as a distinct type. Indeed, nobody did until the 1980’s.Located and regular between  Gendje and  Shirvan,  this highly individual weaving district seems to have almost exclusively specialized in just two rug types: a long rug, as here, with pairs of peacocks around eight-point medallions, on navy or brown-black fields, with a close scatter of smaller geometric devices. The more variety in these elements, the better the rug. Since our example has a particularly dense fill, it must be, and is very good. A true work of folk art. The other Akstafa design appears on prayer design rugs of smaller format and is usually an allover boteh (paisley) pattern. Both types employ the same ivory border with hooked squares. Akstafa seems not to have woven scatter rugs. Do not cut these artistically intriguing long rugs to make scatters!.

Rug no. 21711 (3.8 by 11.0) is a particularly fine example from a rare group of mid-19^th century Shirvan long rugs, almost always with radiant blue, more or less open, grounds. A few simple geometric devices scarcely interrupt the open window character of the long royal blue ground. One can virtually step through it, into…….This rug is the aesthetic antithesis of the Akstafa, saying a lot with very little. Minimalist modern art has nothing  on this piece.Neither rug is more valid, more beautiful than the other. This Shirvan long  rug, one of a select group of no more than a few dozen known examples, employs, as almost all the others do, a poly chrome border of triangles, the so-called ‘Dragon’ pattern, which to our eyes looks more like a parade of wedgie shoes! So call it the colorful wedgie shoe border. Several examples of this select group are dated before 1850, and no. 19711 may be significantly older than our ultra-conservative attribution. The weave is neat, even  and regular

Are these rugs collectible? If you want to hang them vertically,then better have a mansion or country estate with tall ceilings, or you can roll them out for carpet aficionados to drool over. Or you can just treat them right and live with them and love them. What’s not to like?

Details of rugs.

#19752 Askstafa Rug

#19752 Askstafa Rug

#21711 Shirvan Rug

#21711 Shirvan Rug

Caucasian Rugs: A Brief Blogging Introduction

The Caucasus is the mountainous area between the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea. Now divided between Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia and several Russian administrative republic, it was, in its rug producing heyday (the 19^th century) a group of Russian  Empire provinces whose southern border with Persia was defined as the Araxus River and whose northern reaches extended to the Greater Caucasus mountain range. Except for a few larger towns like Baku, Shemakha, Erivan, Tiflis and Shusha, the population resided in virtually uncountable mountain villages and comprised numerous ethnicities and language groups. In general, Christians were to the west in Armenia and Georgia while those of Islamo-Turkish extraction settled in the east along the western Caspian from Lesghistan in the north to Shirvan-Baku in the south.  In the Moghan steppe to the very southeast were a group of tribes sharing designs and ethnicity with  closely related Persian nomads across the border. It must be emphasized that until the border was formalized and closed in the 1860’s, peoples, designs and rugs moved freely through the area of Northwest Iran and the Caucasus, and the intermingling of influences is evident in the surviving antique Caucasian rugs.

The second half of the 19^th century was the most important for Caucasian rugs and most available antique Caucasian carpets are from that era, although the oldest examples, the Shusha  Karabagh “Dragon” carpets date well into the 17^th century.

It should be noted that virtually all Caucasian rugs are in scatter sizes, with prayer (niche) rugs generally smaller. Kazak rugs are often square in format while runners and long rugs are more of an eastern or southeastern specialty. Some large, gallery format carpets were woven in the Karabagh and  soumac flatwoven carpets up to 20’ long are known.

Rugs can be roughly divided by weave and thus geography. From the southwest come the coarsest, most strongly abstract pieces, the Kazaks. These have long piles, large areas of plain colour, wholly abstract geometries. There are numerous subtypes assigned to particular village origins. The villages of Bordshaly , Sewan, Karachof, Lori Pambok, Lambalo are all  famous in rug lore. But plenty of artistically significant pieces have no exact attributions.

The Karabagh area just to the east of the Kazak region, also wove long pile carpets, but often with a Persian influence. Often lumped with Kazaks, our, are attractive representatives of the group.

#18180 Caucasian Kazak 7’6″ X 5’0″

The Gendje district is to the east and is best known for its colouful, diagonally striped long rugs, of which our number 18731 is a classic example.

#18731 Caucasian Moghan 8’0″ x 3’9″

The short pile eastern Caucasian rugs have wider colour palettes and more intricate designs than do the western Caucasian pieces. Kazaks average about 40 knots to the square inch, while Kubas and Shirvans run about 70. The wild power of shaggy Kazaks is transmuted to elegance and precision in Kubas and Shirvans. All Caucasian rugs are symmetrically (Turkish) knotted.

The best known of the fine weave, short pile eastern Caucasian rugs originate in the Kuba (north) and Shirvan (south) areas along the west Caspian. Like the Kazak area, there are numerous village subtypes, each with its characteristic design(s), weaves and colour schemes. Among them is the Karagashli (no. 20807), Marasali (almost always in prayer rug format, no. 18769), Zeychor (21797, 19632),  Lesghi (17967) and Chi-chi (21869)).  There are plenty of fine quality pieces, however, that have no precise village attribution (our 6583, 19663, for example), but are still worthy of attention.

Rugs from the steppe area to the extreme southeast have their own special character. The Talish long rugs often have open, plain fields , while Moghan rugs often have smaller repeating designs.

#18768 Caucasian Moghan 8’10” x 3’2″

Flatwoven rugs were also made in the Caucasus. The weft-wrapped soumacs, primarily from Kuba, are found in room sizes, usually with colourful repeating medalions. Lighter in weight than soumacs are the banded Shirvan and multi-medallion Kuba kilims, generally in 6’ by 9’ sizes. Of course, the relatively coarse technique precludes fine details, but they are bold and wholly geometric, and work well as wall hangings as well as on the floor.

This is only the briefest overview of a very complex and elaborate rug genre, the subject of numerous books and specialist articles. We will periodically return to this  always popular and fascinating area in our Rug of the Week blog when something of superior quality and artistic interest catches our attention.