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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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