Antique Talish | 219 x 101 cm | Nr. Z-3113

Geometric antique Talish runner, dark blue with border

Origin	Caucasus
Dimensions	219 cm x 101 cm (= 2.2119 m²)
Construction	hand-knotted
Material	Pile: wool (hand-spun, natural dyes) Weft & Warp: wool
knots per m²2	280.000
Pile height	5mm
Year of manufacture	1890
Colour	Dark blue, dark red
Edition	one-of-a-kind piece

Origin

Talish rugs are hand-knotted in the south-eastern Caucasus. This antique Talish is a collector's piece. It is around 130 years old, and that alone makes it something really special. Antique rugs like this Talish are as sought after as ever and fetch top prices at renowned auction houses.

Pattern

The decorated surround (border) forms a beautiful contrast to the centre and shapes the transition at the edge of the rug.

The abstract, geometric composition is what gives this Talish its understated elegance. The pattern flatters the way a room is laid out and never steals attention from the furniture, the decoration or the architectural details. It settles beautifully into any setting and complements a room's furnishings in a subtle way.

The background of this Talish is dark blue. The border is worked in dark red, cream white and light blue.

Condition

You aren't the first to take a liking to this Talish. It has had owners before you who valued it and used it. It was hand-knotted around 1890. It has been cleaned thoroughly and is in good, though only partly restored, condition. Parts of the border are missing on both sides. The edges are damaged in places. The pile is worn in places. The fringes could do with a repair. We haven't fully restored this Talish because we feel it has a special charm just as it is. If you would like us to, we will of course happily carry on restoring the rug for you. We can bring just about any rug back to a near-perfect state.

Material

The technique used to make the materials for the pile of this Talish is more than 200 years old. The wool was dyed with natural dyes and spun by hand. Dyeing with natural or plant-based dyes is more complicated, more expensive and more time-consuming than dyeing with chemical colours. For a luminous red, for example, you need around one kilo of ground madder root as dyestuff per kilo of wool. For a strong yellow that isn't too pale, it even takes two kilograms of weld dye per kilo of wool. Spinning the wool is labour-intensive and time-consuming too. And fewer and fewer people still know how to spin wool by hand.

But the effort is worth it: dyed with natural colours, the high-quality wool keeps its natural oils. Wool that has been dyed with natural colours and spun by hand creates fascinating, shimmering patterns. The charm of hand-spun wool, with its slight irregularities and natural shades, comes into its own as a contrast in modern interiors, but just as much in rooms furnished in a more traditional or country-house style. The foundation (weft and warp threads) of this Talish is made of new wool.