Carpet fragment tapestry woven in wool on a woollen warp, Azerbaijan, 1800-1899

Carpet fragment tapestry woven in wool on a woollen warp. Flatweave - soumak plain and countered, left hand half only.

WARP: red wool; Z2S; 26 threads per inch (100 per dm).

WEFT: Foundation: red wool; Z2S; 1 shoot after each row of soumak; 16 knots per inch (67 per dm). Soumak: wool - Z2S; cotton (white) Z3S; 10 colours: red light red, orange, yellow, green, dark blue, blue, purple, black, white (cotton); soumak thread over 3 warp threads and back under 1 thread.

SIDE FINISH: returned weft.

END FINISH: Lower: incomplete. 1 inch (2 cms) of soumak with red weft, and below what appear to be 4 plaited bands which may be a form of warp twining. Warp threads have been grouped and knotted below the plaited bands. These extend for a maximum of 4.5 inches (12 cms) and bend with another knot.
Upper: as lower.

DESIGN: Field: 4 bands of 2 dragons in yellow or dark blue all filled with small, variously coloured Z shapes in the lower space of each dragon is a chequered hexagon and 2 pairs of opposed, elaborate arrowheads; in the upper space is one pair of such motifs, small geometric shapes and one or more stylised animals together with a vertical extension from the body of the 'animal'.
Border: reciprocal diamond heads in black and blue, outlined in red. There is no border down the right-hand side.

Caucasian
Referred to in "Azerbaijani Carpets in the V & A" by Latif Kerimov. Published International Symposium, Baku, 1983, p. 52, pl. 44

Design very siilar to pl. 17 "from the Bosphorus to Samarkand" W R Pickering Collection, especially vertical extension from body of snake.
Mentioned and illustrated in "Caucasian Rugs in the V & A", by M. Franses and R. Pinner (intro. by Donald King). Hali 1980, Vol. 3, No. 2, p. 96, 111, 114.

The dominant S-shapes in this fragment are said to represent dragons, with two antennae at one end and a long, thin tail at the other.

T.138-1959