SIDES.--Selvaged or overcast, with different colored wool, most frequently the former.
ENDS.--Web with small knotted fringe on one or both ends. Sometimes the web is wide as in the Turkoman rugs.
BORDER.--From two to five border stripes, most frequently three, one wide one with a narrow one on each side, all carrying geometrical designs.
PREVAILING COLORS.--Similar to those of the Kazaks. Usually considerable white with rather bright red, light and dark blue.
[Illustration: GENGHIS RUNNER Size 8'9" × 2'8" PROPERTY OF THE AUTHOR]
DESIGNS.--Similar to those of the Kazaks and Karabaghs. Geometrical as a rule, sometimes flowers and vines. The pear is frequently employed, usually in alternate rows of red and blue. Birds and animals.
SIZES.--Seldom square, mostly runners three to five by four to nineteen feet.
PRICES.--The lowest priced Caucasian rug as a rule. From $0.50 to $2.00 per square foot.
REMARKS.--Durable. Often sold as Karabaghs.
KNOT: Ghiordes. Nine to the inch vertically and seven horizontally, making sixty-three to the square inch.
This is a very old piece. Note that the outer border appears in the ends and is lacking on the sides, having been cut off on account of its worn-out condition.
The field is covered with the pear design in alternating rows of light and dark colors upon a rich red ground. The inner border carries the Greek meander in red and white upon a blue ground, while the main stripe is filled with the octagon and the eight-pointed star of the Medes in different colors upon a white ground. The third border, which remains on the ends only, carries the Greek meander in blue and white upon a red ground. Both warp and woof are of wool.
WHY SO NAMED.--After Karabagh, the name of a province in Transcaucasia just across the Persian border north of Tabriz, where they are made.
KNOT.--Ghiordes. Number vertically six to twelve; number horizontally five to ten; number to square inch thirty to one hundred twenty.
WOOF.--Coarse wool, sometimes dyed. Generally several strands between each row of knots.
WEAVE.--Coarsely woven and carelessly knotted.
SIDES.--Antiques usually selvaged. Moderns nearly always overcast with colored wool.
ENDS.--Short webs, one of which is generally turned back and hemmed. The other end has a fringe of loose or twisted warp threads.