Antique Kazak | 217 x 139 cm | Nr. Z-409

Geometric Kazak, light red with border and diamonds

Origin	Caucasus
Dimensions	217 cm x 139 cm (= 3.02 m²)
Construction	hand-knotted
Material	Pile: wool (hand-spun, natural dyes) Weft & Warp: wool
knots per m²2	160.000
Pile height	4mm
Year of manufacture	1880
Colour	Light red, dark blue
Edition	one-of-a-kind piece

 

Origin

Kazak (also spelled Kasak) rugs belong to the family of Caucasian rugs. Rugs have been made in the Caucasus since the end of the 18th century. Their hallmark is abstract geometric tribal patterning in primary colours. Typically the geometric — and, more rarely, floral — motifs are rendered in intense, high-contrast colours. In the 19th century a considerable share of these largely village-made rugs was exported to the West under Russian control. A more precise description of their origin would be Gendje.

 

Pattern

The ornate border forms a wonderful contrast with the centre and shapes the transition at the edge of the rug.

The abstract, geometric composition is what gives this Kazak its understated elegance. The pattern flatters the design of the room and never draws attention away from the furniture, the décor or the architectural elements. It creates a pleasant atmosphere without dominating the style of the room.

In the pattern of this Kazak it is above all the diamonds that catch the eye. A diamond is a rhombus standing on one of its points, and in an Oriental rug its four equal sides can be serrated, outlined or set with hooks. The diamond is one of the oldest basic forms in the Oriental rug. In the Islamic world it carries a symbolic meaning: it stands for the immortality of the soul. That is why it appears so often as a filler motif.

The background of this Kazak is light red. The border is worked in beige-yellow and cream white.

 

Condition

You are not the first to take a liking to this Kazak. It has had owners before you who valued and used it. The pile is slightly worn. It was hand-knotted around 1880. We have cleaned it thoroughly and restored it with care. Despite its age, it is therefore in very good condition.

 

Material

The technique used to prepare the materials for the pile of this Kazak is more than 200 years old. The wool was dyed with natural colours and spun by hand. Dyeing with natural or plant dyes is more complicated, more expensive and more time-consuming than dyeing with chemical colours. For a luminous red, for instance, you need around one kilo of ground madder root as dyestuff per kilo of wool. For a strong yellow that is not too pale, it even takes two kilograms of the dyestuff dyer's weld per kilo of wool. Spinning the wool is time-consuming and labour-intensive as well. On top of that, fewer and fewer people still master the art of spinning wool by hand.

But the effort is worth it: dyeing with natural colours lets the high-quality wool keep its natural lanolin content. Wool that has been naturally dyed and hand-spun 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 equally in rooms furnished in a more traditional or country-house style. The foundation (weft and warp threads) of this Kazak is made of new wool.