Chichi Kuba Long Rug [SH-367]

A spectacular, long rug of 13 organic colors. A cornucopia of ancient tribal motifs from the Kuba district, woven along the shores of the Caspian Sea. Saturated cerulean blue field seems to suspend a field of random horizontal rows of Turkmen-like gols, a pair in the center, and half ends an eight-sided gol. The more you zoom in, the more you realize that the three borders enclosing the field are filled with attention to detail. These are not seen in later examples. The outer border abrashed appears to be a bird and a deer head meandering into an ivory cruciform flower and vine. The main border's striped tendrils have appendages that show a L-shaped hook, an inner border of colorful stepped hexagons and half diamonds, creating a ribbon of motion. Selvedge is the cord L side border showing a woven date translation to 1851. This superb weaving shows excellent condition and was hand-washed by us. Ian Bennett in Vol. 1 Caucasian Rugs. Twin points to the rarities Khirdagyd - Chichi rugs woven with both a crab border and on a white ground. He illustrates one of his page 278 nos. 303. Cites two others. He dates his second half of the 19th century.