



Produced by The Online Distributed Proofreading Team at
http://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images
generously made available by The Internet Archive/American
Libraries.)









THE ORIENTAL RUG




[Illustration:

  PLATE I.
  ANTIQUE LADIK
  _Prayer Rug_
  FROM THE COLLECTION OF MR. GEORGE H. ELLWANGER
  Size: 3.10 x 6]




  THE ORIENTAL RUG

  A MONOGRAPH ON
  EASTERN RUGS AND CARPETS,
  SADDLE-BAGS, MATS & PILLOWS.
  WITH A CONSIDERATION OF KINDS
  AND CLASSES, TYPES, BORDERS,
  FIGURES, DYES, SYMBOLS ETC.
  TOGETHER WITH SOME PRACTICAL
  ADVICE TO COLLECTORS.


  BY W. D. ELLWANGER

  Author of
  "A Summer Snowflake"


  NEW YORK:
  DODD, MEAD & COMPANY.
  1909



  _Copyright, 1903_
  BY DODD, MEAD AND COMPANY
  Published September, 1903




PREFACE


That Oriental rugs are works of art in the highest sense of the term, and
that fine antique specimens, of even modest size, have a financial value
of ten, fifteen, or thirty-eight thousand dollars, has been recently
determined at public auction. At this auction, several nations had a
representative voice in the bidding, and the standard of price was fairly
established. The value of rugs may have been imaginary and sentimental
heretofore; it is now a definite fact, with figures apparently at the
minimum. What the maximum may prove, remains to be seen.

Choice old rugs, therefore, to-day come into the same class with genuine
paintings of the old Dutch School; with canvases of Teniers, Ruysdael,
Cuyp, Ostade, or whatever similar artist's work may have escaped the
museums. They vie in prestige with the finest examples of Corot, Diaz,
Troyon, or Daubigny; and in monetary supremacy they overtop the rarest and
grandest of Chinese porcelains.

And yet the Oriental rug, as against such competitors for the wealthy
collectors' favour, has hardly a history, and is practically without a
name or a pedigree. Experts will tell you at a glance whether or not your
Wouverman is genuine, or inform you where every true Corot was owned or
whence it was bartered or stolen. In Chinese porcelains, the knowing
dealer will easily prove to you not only under what dynasty but in what
decade or year a particular piece was produced.

The painting has descent, signature, or the brush mark of a school to
father it. The Chinese vase, bowl, or jar has its marks, cyphers, stamps
and dates, and an undoubted genealogy to vouch for its authenticity. The
rug must speak for itself and go upon its intrinsic merits. It is its own
guarantee and certificate of artistic and financial value.

The study of Oriental rugs, therefore, can never lead to an exact science
or approximate dogmatic knowledge. Whoever is interested in them must
needs rely upon his personal judgment or the seller's advice. There is
practically only one current book authority in the premises.

A new volume on the subject would thus seem to be well justified. It is
the hope of the author that this book may prove itself sound and
practical, and that it may help to make more clear and simple the right
appreciation of a valuable rug.


W. D. ELLWANGER

ROCHESTER, N.Y., 1903




CONTENTS


  Chapter                                                 Page

     I. THE MYSTERY OF THE RUG                               3

    II. GENERAL CLASSIFICATION                              13

   III. OF THE MAKING, AND OF DESIGNS, BORDERS, ETC.        21

    IV. OF THE DYEING                                       35

     V. OF PERSIAN RUGS, SPECIFICALLY                       43

    VI. CAUCASIAN RUGS, DAGHESTAN AND RUSSIAN TYPES         61

   VII. OF TURKISH VARIETIES                                69

  VIII. TURKOMAN OR TURKESTAN RUGS                          79

    IX. OF ORIENTAL CARPETS, SADDLE-BAGS, PILLOWS, ETC.     93

     X. AUCTIONS, AUCTIONEERS, AND DEALERS                 107

    XI. INSCRIPTIONS AND DATES                             121

   XII. GENERAL OBSERVATIONS AND PARTICULAR ADVICE         131




LIST OF PLATES


  PLATE

     I. LADIK              _Frontispiece_

    II. KONIAH           _Facing page_ 22

   III. KAZAK                "    "    36

    IV. SEHNA                "    "    44

     V. CHICHI               "    "    50

    VI. KABISTAN             "    "    62

   VII. GHEORDEZ             "    "    70

  VIII. KOULAH               "    "    72

    IX. MELEZ                "    "    74

     X. BELUCHISTAN          "    "    80

    XI. ANATOLIAN PILLOWS    "    "    94

   XII. BERGAMA              "    "   124




The Oriental Rug




CHAPTER I

THE MYSTERY OF THE RUG


To judge of an Oriental rug rightly, it must be looked at from several
points of view, or, at least, from two aspects; against the light and with
the light. From the first standpoint, against the light of knowledge,
speaking figuratively, there may be seen only a number of rude and awkward
figures in crude colours scattered erratically on a dark or dingy-looking
background, a fringe of coarse and ragged strings at either end, and rough
frays of yarn at the sides. This is what is accepted by many people as an
Oriental rug. And indeed this is what most rugs are.

If, on the other hand, we view our rugs with the light of a better wisdom
and happier experience, we will see the richest and softest of colours,
the most harmonious shadings and blendings, medallions brilliant as
jewels, or geometrical designs beautiful as the rose windows of a
cathedral; or, again, graceful combinations of charmingly conventionalized
flowers and delicate traceries and arabesques,--all these displaying new
glories of ever changing and never tiring beauty. Each woven picture, too,
is as soft to tread upon as a closely mown lawn, and caresses the feet
that sink into its pile. These are Oriental rugs as their admirers know
and love them.

Perhaps the chief charm of all such beautiful rugs is in their mystery.
Their designs are odd and strange and full of hidden meanings, and their
effects are often evolved from the crudest and clumsiest figures, hooks
and squares and angles; they owe their wealth of colour to simple
vegetable dyes from the woods and fields and gardens, and yet the secret
of many of these dyes is still a secret, or has long ago been lost. The
places whence the rugs come, the people who make them and those who sell
them, all are mysterious and hard to know and understand.

Moreover, broadly speaking, there are no experts on the subject, no
authorities, no literature. He who would know them must learn them by
experience. The rug dealers, for the most part, seem to treat their wares
merely as so much merchandise, and what knowledge concerning them they are
willing to impart is so contradictory as to be almost valueless. Few of
them would agree upon the name of an example which might be out of the
ordinary, or be able to tell where it was made. Ask of them what a "Mecca"
is, and they will stammer in their varying answers. And yet the Armenians
who handle most of the rugs in this country are often highly educated, and
fully appreciate the beauty of their wares. Their taste, however, is not
always our taste, and all the Orientalists seem to retain their barbaric
fondness for crude and startling colours. When we would turn to books for
information in the matter we find that the authorities are not many. They
might be numbered on your fingers and thumbs. These few books, moreover,
have been published only in limited editions at high prices, and are not
easily obtainable. One of the most important of such works is the
sumptuously illustrated, elephantine folio, issued in Vienna in 1892 by
the Imperial and Royal Austrian and Commercial Museum. And, elaborate as
this authority is, the modest editor, by way of apology, says in the
preface that "no pretensions are made toward perfection owing to the
little information that we can fall back upon." A recent authority on the
subject is John Kimberly Mumford, and his volume on Oriental Rugs,
published in 1900, has thrown much light on the subject. Too great praise
cannot be given to this work and to his later studies in the same field.

Still, no one knows it all, and the mystery of Oriental rugs only deepens
as we try to learn. The little that any one may really know of them
through experience, through questioning and elusive answers, through
conversations with obliging and polite vendors, and through foreign travel
even, is, when all is said, only a patchwork of knowledge. Consider how
stupendous and hopeless would be the task of one who would dare endeavour
to analyze, criticise, classify, and co-ordinate the paintings of the past
five centuries, were no names signed to them or no appreciable number of
pictures painted by the same known artist.

He who would write of rugs has a like condition to face.

And alas! also, whoever would write on this subject must now treat of it
principally as history. The characteristic rugs, the antique rugs, the
rare specimens, are seldom to be bought. They are in museums, or in the
hands of collectors who hold them in even a tighter fist.

Twenty years ago the warning was given that the choice old rugs were
growing scarce; the years following found fewer still upon the market. Two
or three years ago one of the largest wholesale houses in New York,
carrying a stock of half a million or a million dollars, had no antiques
to show. In the autumn of 1902, another large New York importer who had
just returned from Persia, Tiflis, and Constantinople admitted that he had
not brought back one valuable antique piece.

Nevertheless, the true enthusiast need not be discouraged. From wandering
dealers, in odd corners, at the unexpected or by chance, one may happen on
a choice specimen.

The very word "Persian" is a synonym for opulence, splendour,
gorgeousness; and "Oriental" means beauty and wonder and the magic of the
"Arabian Nights." From the Aladdin's cave of the mystical East, therefore,
we may still hope to gather treasure and spoil.




CHAPTER II

GENERAL CLASSIFICATION


Most of the rugs of commerce in this country come from Persia, Turkey,
Asia Minor, Turkestan, the southern part of Russia, Afghanistan, and
Beluchistan; a few also from India. The rugs are named from the provinces
or cities where they are woven, and to the uninitiated, the names seem to
have been as fearfully and wonderfully made as the rugs themselves. They
are spelled one way on the maps and every other way in catalogues and
advertisements. In enumerating the most familiar ones it may be well to
write their names as nearly phonetically and conventionally as possible. A
few rugs have trade appellations only, without regard to topography; and,
often, unknown towns are called into requisition for fanciful titles to
please the purchaser.

Of course the names of rugs may mean nothing to your man-of-all-work,
whose duty it is to chastise them upon the lawn. But there is poetry in
the names of the roses, and you cannot half enjoy their beauty unless you
know a Mabel Morrison from the Baroness Rothschild; Cecile Brunner from
the Earl of Dufferin; or can give the proper rank and title to Captain
Christy, General Jacqueminot, and Marechal Niel. And who would dare to
talk of laces that could not give a French or Dutch or Irish name to them?
Or, when painted pictures instead of woven ones were under discussion, who
would venture to admit that he had heard for the first time the names of
some of the Old Masters, or did not know any of the Flemish School, or
could not at least touch his hat to a Gainsborough or a Romney? There were
"old masters" in wool as well as on canvas, as the Gheordez rugs most
particularly prove, and though the artists' signatures are missing or
meaningless, their classification is important. Once learned, and then
difficult to remember withal, rugs answer to their names like old and
familiar friends. If Homer catalogued the ships, surely the masterpieces
of the Eastern loom are worthy of brief nomenclature.

The Persians come first, and perhaps in the following order of excellence:
Kirman, Sehna, Kurdistan, Khorassan, Serabend, Youraghan, Joshghan
(Tjoshghan), Feraghan, Shiraz, Gulistan, Mousul, etc. The rug dealers
frequently speak of a "Persian Iran," but as Iran is the native expression
for Persia, the name is as tautological as are the dealer's laudatory
adjectives. So far as the term "Iran" can be differentiated, it is now
applied with some propriety to rare old Persian rugs of fine weave only,
whose proper name may be in doubt.

Among the Turkish rugs, which are mainly those from Asia Minor, the
Yourdez (or Gheordez), the Koulahs, Koniahs, and Ladiks are by far the
finest, and then come the Bergamas, vying often for like high honour, the
Melez, and many others which are vaguely classed as Anatolians.

From Turkestan come the numerous Bokharas and the more uncommon
Samarkands; from Afghanistan, the Afghans and the Khiva, and
Yamoud-Bokharas. But the two rugs last named seem to have a doubtful
paternity, and should perhaps be classed with the other Bokharas.

Beluchistan sends but one type, which is generally unmistakable, although
Afghans, Bokharas, and Beluchistans all have a family likeness.

To Caucasia in Russia are credited the Kabistans, Shirvans, Chichis
(Tzi-tzis), Darbends, Karabaghs, Kazaks, and Gengias, also the Soumacs, or
so-called Cashmeres. The first four of these are somewhat similar in
character, and not many years ago were generally sold in this country
under the indiscriminate title of Daghestans. We are more specific in our
knowledge now, and can classify and differentiate an old Baku rug, or a
Kuba, which is a Kubistan, and therefore what we used to call an antique
Kabistan.

India provides us only with some fine large carpets mostly of modern make,
and also with many imitations of Persian rugs, made in part by machinery
like the current substitute for a Turkish towel.




CHAPTER III

OF THE MAKING, & OF DESIGNS, BORDERS, ETC.


[Illustration]

[Illustration: _"Serabend" Border_]


In order to appreciate the beauty of rugs, it is well to remember how they
are made, and with what infinite patience the bits of wool are knotted
onto the warp one after another, knot upon knot and tie after tie, until
the perfect piece is finished. Yet, no! Finished it may be, but never
perfect. Deliberately, if necessary, it must show some defect, in proof
that Allah alone is perfect. Such at least is the poetical version of a
crooked rug as the seller tells it. Yet never was a vendor but will
expatiate fluently on the merits of a rug which lies true and straight
and flat upon the floor, as a good rug should. It is a common sight
nowadays in shop windows to see some wandering artisan plying his trade
for the edification of the passer-by. In his own home it is generally a
woman who does the weaving, and very commonly the whole family take part
in it. More often still the rugs were woven by an Oriental maid for her
prospective dowry, and the practice yet obtains. A specimen of her
handicraft in textile art was a bride's portion and marriage gift; it was
considered as essential to the proceedings as the modern _trousseau_. This
offering was