With flowers of thought we have twined the second column of the chart, and now must practically apply our deductions to objects at hand. Rugs might have been made without colour and would have served utilitarian purposes as well, but they would hardly have found their way out of the Orient had not their flower- […]
Indian Rugs
In approaching the study of Indian fabrics we find that all preconceived notions of Hindu ornament must become subservient to the easily proved fact that into the great Indian peninsula at the present time have crept influences of every kind that have so swayed the native workers that everything which is now made there partakes […]
Religion in eastern rugs
Of the religious beliefs which have most effectually influenced pattern, those that led to nature-worship were necessarily the earliest, the sources of life being most profoundly reverenced. These early beliefs left legacies to the weavers among the ancients, and Art owes to them a debt she cannot often enough acknowledge. In approaching this most absorbingly […]
Bibliography of Oriental rugs
Until within a century the casual student of things Oriental has been apt to look upon Asia chiefly as “Bible country,” and through a glass of semi-religious colouring has endeavoured to make the things of long ago explain the life of the intervening centuries. Without doubt the tent of Abraham was similar to those which […]
Calligraphy and oriental rugs
Since the Saracenic conquest Arabic characters have been used by the scholars and scribes of Persia, and such have figured largely in the decoration of pottery and weaving. It would indeed take the learning of a sage to grasp even a faint idea of the various ways that the alphabets of the world have figured […]
Persian Rugs
Although robbed of many of its chief dependencies by the inroads of rival governments and the march of empire, we still find Persia the most poetic of lands, and its weavings the choicest of fabrics. The physical aspect of the ” Land of the Lion and the Sun ” shows the vivid contrasts that are […]
Eastern rugs design patterns
Before the migration of patterns one might trace the origin of fabrics by reading their ornamentation and noting the designs or ideographs used to depict the thought of the craftsman or art-worker. Now it is almost impossible to find pure designs, so crossed are some motifs by certain others. Wars and pilgrimages have carried the […]
Great River
The district between the Black and Caspian Seas on the north and the desert of Arabia on the south has been the scene of countless changes of government and ceaseless migration, to and fro, of the tribes of Asia and the conquering heroes of Europe. Every new influence that has swept over this stretch of […]
Looms, warp, woof
Consideration of materials used in the making of rugs and their colouring is naturally followed by close study of methods of manufacture, and examination of the paraphernalia of which the weaver makes use. In order to determine the age of a rug we should know how to detect differences in the weave incident to the […]
Geography
In presenting the chart method of studying Oriental rugs it is with the firm belief that by thus systematizing and arranging facts the mind is equipped with data and the eye is trained to see. It would, however, be detrimental to all progress to overburden the memory, and therefore we should proceed most cautiously as […]