November 3, 2008 – 11:15 am
This area, now Russian, but also for the purpose of this website encompassing the north-eastern regions of Persia and Afghanistan, can roughly be divided into two parts western and eastern. The eastern section can conveniently be based on Samarkand, where there is a rug market dealing with the more Chinese influenced products of Khotan, Kashgar [...]
November 3, 2008 – 11:07 am
Considering that Persia is probably the cradle of the craft, and of Moslem inclination, very few prayer rugs have been handed down from the past. Those which have survived, most of which are now in museums, are the products of the Golden Age court manufacture. Finely woven, and of extremely good draughtsmanship, these pieces, as [...]
November 3, 2008 – 11:03 am
Prayer rugs from this area the cross-roads of the world are easily identified, at least as far as the late eighteenth century and the nineteenth are concerned. Always geometrical, with no curves whatsoever, somewhat coarse in weave, and with all the little unexpected extras in their designs, such as combs, hands, etc., they cannot be [...]