Persian rugs: The Complete Guide to Persian Rugs

The Oliveira Shirvan Surahani ‘Garden' Rug

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The Oliveira Antique Caucasian Shirvan Surahani ‘Garden' Rug

Size: 251 x 126 cm
Region: West Asia > Caucasus > Northeast Caucasus > Shirvan
Type: Rugs and Carpets
Date/Period: 19th century : late
Materials: soft wool, natural dyes.
Structure: Knots: 50 (v) x 31 (h) = 1,550 / dm2
Condition: Very good, with good pile all over.
Full Description
A fantastic Shirvan Surahani ‘garden' rug with a shield pattern with green and white latch-hooked diamonds within red octagons. Peter F. Stone calls this shield pattern the "turret design type" which, apart from the Shirvan area, is also to be "found on rugs attributed to the Kazak, Daghestan and Kuba districts" (on Rugs of the Caucasus: Structure and Design, Greenleaf Co.1984, pp. 156). When this design appears on Kuba rugs Ulrich Schurmann calls it the ‘Ordutch-Konagend' pattern (on Caucasian Rugs, Poolesville, 1990, pp. 278).The center of each of the three middle latch-hooked diamonds has a Lesghi star, a rather unusual feature. Two additional Lesghi stars are placed at the corners of the central field's top. On another Shirvan Surahani ‘garden' rug with a shield pattern with latch-hooked diamonds within octagons Ian Bennett write that "these latch-hook diamonds within the outer octagons are attractive features not previously encountered on rugs of this type" (on Oriental Rugs - Volume 1 Caucasian, Suffolk, UK, 1981, pp. 259). This rug's colors are uncommonly bold and balanced. The main border is a beautiful development of the traditional ‘leaf-and-calyx' border design. The two darker floral borders around it suggest a more Northern attribution (Kuba). But the fact that the main motif of this rug may have been made in places hundreds of kilometers away suggests that several motifs were used outside their original place/village.

Literature:

See somewhat similar rugs on: Ian Bennett, Oriental Rugs - Volume 1 Caucasian, Suffolk, UK, 1981, plates 277-279, 283, 333, 336; Ulrich Schurmann, Caucasian Rugs, Poolesville, 1990, plate 105; E. Gans-Ruedin, Caucasian Carpets, Thames and Hudson, London, 1986, pp. 194-195 & 282-283; Murray Eiland Jr.Oriental Rugs - A New Comprehensive Guide, Little, Brown and Company, Boston, 1981, illustr. 253.

Baku\Surahani Rugs are part of the broader category of Caucasian Rugs and Caucasian Carpets

For Further Reading:

JBOC's Notes on the Bible

More Oriental Rug Notes

Caucasian Rugs

Thanks and best wishes,

J. Barry O'Connell Jr.

Persian Rugs the O'Connell Guides