The color scheme of the piece is remarkable for its harmony. The dominant color is wine, introduced in many beautifully blended shades, and relieved with correspondingly soft tones of old blue and green, the whole illuminated with well-arranged bands of white.
[Illustration: SHIRVAN RUG Size 7'3" × 4' FROM THE COLLECTION OF THE AUTHOR
Knot: Ghiordes. Seven to the inch horizontally and nine vertically, making sixty-three to the square inch.
A splendid specimen of Caucasian weaving, being a perfect gem for color, quality and sheen, although in design it differs somewhat from the ordinary Shirvan.
The field is covered with octagons each of which contains an eight-petaled flower, no two of which are alike in color. Upon close inspection it is noticeable that the ends of some of the petals are finished in a color entirely different from that of the rest of the petal.
Between the octagons are strewn various floral, pear and goat forms and the weaver has indulged in the Kurdish trick of shading the background, which shows no less than three distinct shades of green.
The main border stripe consists of a meandering vine with a leaf form at each turn and on each side of this is a narrow stripe carrying the Greek meander, the outer one on a field of yellow and the inner one on a field of red.
This is a very old piece with dyes equal to those found in any part of the Orient, even in olden times, and although the colors are rather pronounced they are very pleasing to the eye.
Caucasia and Transcaucasia form an isthmus connecting Europe and Asia. It is bounded on the west by the Black Sea and on the east by the Caspian Sea and it has an area of about 166,500 square miles, with a population of nearly ten million. It was once Persian territory, but was acquired by Russia in 1813. Nowhere in the world is there such a mixture of races and languages, the number of dialects being estimated at about seventy. The carpets of the Caucasians are in coloring and in design identical with those of Ancient Assyria and Babylon and they have preserved their original characteristics, but alas, not their original dyes, for here too the coal-tar products have been well received by these wild mountaineers.