SIZES.--From two and one-half to seven by four to ten feet.
PRICES.--Antiques rare; moderns cheap, from $1.00 to $3.00 per square foot.
REMARKS.--Frequently crooked. The Shirvan and Kabistans are often sold as Daghestans.
with accompanying descriptions at pages 84 and 292.
Like most rugs of its class this piece consists wholly of geometrical devices such as the latch hook, star, octagon, barber-pole stripe, etc., all spaces being filled with designs of various sizes. Each motif consists of three eight-pointed star forms, one within another. The second and third borders are purely Caucasian and represent a twig with two leaves and a flower. This motif is seldom found in any but the Caucasian fabrics.
The most common form of Daghestan prayer rug with its Caucasian niche and lattice field, each square of which is filled with a peculiar rectilineal floral form. All of the border designs are characteristically Caucasian.
[Illustration: DAGHESTAN PRAYER RUG PROPERTY OF H. B. CLAFLIN & CO. (Description on page 256)]
WHY SO NAMED.--Derbend, meaning "a fortified gate," is the name of the chief city and capital of the province of Daghestan, in the neighborhood of which these rugs are made by the Tartars and Turkomans.
KNOT.--Ghiordes. Number vertically eight to twelve; number horizontally five to ten; number to square inch forty to one hundred twenty.
WOOF.--Good wool. Usually more than two woof threads between each row of knots.
NAP.--Good, soft, thick, long, lustrous wool.
WEAVE.--Very good, but not as close as that of the Daghestans.
SIDES.--Generally overcast. Occasionally selvaged.
ENDS.--Like the Daghestans, a short web with knotted fringe at each end. Sometimes the web is wide as in the Turkoman products.
BORDER.--From two to four border stripes, carrying large geometrical patterns separated by narrow stripes of plain color.
PREVAILING COLORS.--Fewer colors than the Daghestans. Usually a field of blue or red. Yellow is lavishly employed.
DESIGNS.--Similar to those of the Daghestans and Kabistans, but of a coarser nature and purely geometric, the latch hook and the eight-pointed star devices being the most common. The field usually consists of a repetition of the designs in alternate colors.