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Wade wrote the following in the auction ad:
"Type: Talish.(Lenkoran district.) Size:
3'5"x6'2". Age: 1890 circa.Condition: Very good to excellent. Velvety
wools with good pile throughout.Few areas slightly lower than
others.(no worn areas.) Complete with it's original multi-colored
edges. Great colors, and designs.Early vegetable dyes, with a old
synthetic red.(has some slight bleeding, but hardly noticable.) Wool
warp, and changes of a charcoal black wool weft.K.P.S.I.:7x9.Very
collectable.Has been professionally washed.Needs nothing, but your
favorite place to enjoy. Buyer must pay for shipping, and proper
insurance. Please feel free to ask any questions you may have. Thank
you, and Good Luck!!! "
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Here we see one of the normal variations of the Talish
borders. Here we have in the main border a large circular floral form
flanked by 4 flowers. More common is to have 4 flowers between each
large circular floral form but in this rug there are two flowers
between each large circular floral form. The guard borders are normal
as well. I at a loss to explain then except as connected hooked
squares.
Talish Rug?
There are separate linguistic, ethnic, and political
definition of people called Talish. There is a Talish language so those
who speak Talish are considered Talish. There are also a people who are
ethnically Talish who may not speak the language. Then there were those
who were politically Talish. In that group were Azeris, Talish, Jews,
Persians and anyone who happened to live in the Talish Khanate when it
was a Talish Khanate. The point is that this distinctive rug is called
a Talish and other distinctly different rugs were woven in the Khanate
of Talish. That other types of rugs were woven there and identified as
Talish does not mean that this can not be a Talish.
In the discussion of another Talish a small group of
"experts" suggested a rug was not a Talish because they could not see
the supplementary wefts that were very apparent in the picture that
they were looking at. It baffles me how they could ignore and
misrepresent the evidence in front of them. It is not enough to just
cite evidence but a responsible scholar must understand that evidence
in it's historical context.
Then there is the famous Wright and Wertime Talish in Caucasian
Carpets and Covers.page 88 illustration 33. All the picture
proves is that in 1889 a Talish rug was entered into the Tiflis Carpet
exhibition. The rug is a rather typical looking Talish with the typical
borders, dimensions and layout and it has large botehs in the field.
That does not prove anything other than that someone wove a typical
Talish with botehs and eneterd it in a show. The purpose of the show
was to stimulate rug sales so it is very plausible that the designer
decided to add botehs to a typical Talish to see if it would sell. We
must also be very careful not to judge old traditions on the basis of
late circumstantial evidence.
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