Kazak | 260 x 163 cm | Nr. 20580

Kazak

Delivery time	2 days
Origin	Caucasus
Dimensions	260 cm x 163 cm (= 4.24 m²)
Construction	hand-knotted
Material	Pile: wool (hand-spun, natural dyes)
knots	120.000
Condition	pre-owned, cleaned & partially restored
Edition	one-of-a-kind piece

Origin

Kazak (also spelled Kasak) rugs belong to the group of Caucasian rugs. Rugs have been made in the Caucasus since the end of the 18th century. Characteristic are the abstract, geometric tribal patterns 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 rugs, produced mainly in villages, was exported to the West under Russian control.

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 dyes 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 example, you need around one kilo of ground madder root as dyestuff per kilo of wool. For a strong yellow that is not too pale, you even need two kilograms of weld per kilo of wool. Spinning the wool is just as time-consuming and labour-intensive. What is more, fewer and fewer people still master spinning wool by hand.

But the effort is worth it: dyeing with natural colours allows the high-quality wool to keep its natural oil content. 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 equally in rooms furnished in a more traditional or country style.

The foundation (weft and warp threads) of this Kazak is new wool.

Condition

This Kazak has had admirers before you. It was knotted around 56. It has been thoroughly cleaned and is in good but only partly restored condition. The fringes could do with a repair here and there. We have not fully restored this Kazak because we feel it has a special charm exactly as it is. If you would like us to, we will of course be happy to carry on restoring the rug for you. We can bring almost any rug back to near-perfect condition.