This exquisite 19th century Caucasian Shirvan area rug from the southern Azerbaijan region features a striking geometric triple-medallion design of great visual power. Red and ivory medallions set against a beautifully abrash navy and blue-green field create a composition of bold color contrast and tonal depth, while the intricate ivory border with its geometric motifs in blue, red, and yellow provides a vibrant yet balanced frame.
The distinctive abrash — the natural variation in vegetable-dyed wool that occurs when small batches are hand-dyed at slightly different concentrations — lends the field three unique shades of blue and green that testify to the authentic handwoven origins of this piece and give it a depth and visual complexity that no uniformly dyed textile can replicate. Shirvan rugs, woven in the southeastern region of Azerbaijan along the Caspian coast, represent one of the most technically refined and design-sophisticated traditions within the broad Caucasian weaving world. Distinguished by finer knotting than the bold Kazak rugs of the higher mountains, Shirvan weavings offer an intricate geometric vocabulary, a luminous palette of vegetable-dyed wool, and an elegance that has made them prized by collectors of antique Caucasian textiles for generations.
Dimensions: 3' 3" x 5'
Date of Manufacture: 4th Quarter of the 19th Century
Place of Origin: Caucasus (Shirvan, Azerbaijan)
Material: Wool on a wool foundation with vegetable dyes
