3.8 x 11.4 Antique Long Rug or Runner, Probably Turkish, Circa 1890
A distinctive antique “long rug”, a term applied to wide, shorter runners that were sometimes woven for indigenous use. Ostensibly, this piece seems to be northwest Persian, with what is essentially a stylized “Lattice and Shrub” field design with antecedents in early Persian carpets. However, a number of features, including the palette, the weave and the handle of the rug suggest it was probably woven in Turkey, possibly in the Melas area, in the last quarter of the 19th century.
It has a remarkable range of colors and would be equally at home in a modern or traditional interior.
The weave is puzzling, with a light weight, pliable handle and with red wool wefts, including some rows where multiple wefts make the spacing between the rows of knots far from uniform. One sees this in Kazak rugs from the southwest Caucasus but there is little if anything else that suggests this is a Kazak. The multi cord selvedges are also somewhat unusual.
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