EAST CAUCASUS, FIRST QUARTER 19TH CENTURY

The variety of colour, execution of design and balanced proportions in this Kuba long rug are of exceptional quality and closely relate to a kelleh of 'Harshang' design illustrated by Ulrich Shürmann, Caucasian rugs, Braunschweig, 1961, pp.258-9, pl.95. The design of flaming palmettes enclosing stylised peony blossoms, the origin of which ultimately derives from the Isfahan 'in and out' palmette design, was coined the 'Harshang' pattern by Charles Grant Ellis but is also known as the 'Joshagan', or 'Shah Abbas' design (Ş. Yetkin, Early Caucasian Carpets, vol. l, p. 64). Ellis notes that the design originated either in Khorasan or India, and is closely related to the 'Afshan' design which was also heavily used in the region. Both the 'Harshang' and 'Afshan' designs proved extremely popular in the 18th and 19th centuries (C.G. Ellis, Early Caucasian Rugs, Washington D.C, 1976, pl.28).