This pretty, finely woven and colourful Kurdish village rug probably originates from north-west Persia. A green hexagonal grid studded with tiny flowers organises fields with various flower motives, interspersed with hexagonal shields with hooked outlines. The flower motives range from some kind of tulip tree to more abstract renderings that remind of motives also found in Southern Persian (e.g. Qashqa'i and Luri) rugs. The narrow main wine glass and serrated leaves border is often found in Caucasian rugs. It is surrounded by two meander borders with rosettes, on mid blue and white grounds.
The rug uses a very wide colour palette with more than ten dyes, a beautiful green, a clear yellow, a dark aubergine and a medium madder pink among them. Clearly all dyes are natural. They are simply gorgeous, the best I have seen in a long time.
The size is 7'4" x 4'3" (220x127 cm). All wool construction, symmetrical (turkish) knots. Two-ply warps, brown of off-white plied together, two shots of light brown wefts. Alternate warps are very slightly depressed, the weave is very tight and relatively fine for Kurdish weaving: 7.h x 9.v knots per inch = 63 kpsi. The top end has some remnants of knotted fringe.
Apart from the missing outer border at the bottom end, the condition is pretty good, with even wear. There was a hole and a nib near the top left corner and one small area showed foundation. This has been repaired recenty by Walter Brew, Thunderstrand (see images showing repairs and repilings). The ends have been secured. There is no fading or colour run, no stains, cuts or holes. The rug has been washed professionally by Walter before repair.