GENERAL CLASSIFICATION
Most of the rugs of commerce in this country come from Persia, Turkey,
Asia Minor, Turkestan, the southern part of Russia, Afghanistan, and
Beluchistan; a few also from India. The rugs are named from the provinces
or cities where they are woven, and to the uninitiated, the names seem to
have been as fearfully and wonderfully made as the rugs themselves. They
are spelled one way on the maps and every other way in catalogues and
advertisements. In enumerating the most familiar ones it may be well to
write their names as nearly phonetically and conventionally as possible. A
few rugs have trade appellations only, without regard to topography; and,
often, unknown towns are called into requisition for fanciful titles to
please the purchaser.
Of course the names of rugs may mean nothing to your man-of-all-work,
whose duty it is to chastise them upon the lawn. But there is poetry in
the names of the roses, and you cannot half enjoy their beauty unless you
know a Mabel Morrison from the Baroness Rothschild; Cecile Brunner from
the Earl of Dufferin; or can give the proper rank and title to Captain
Christy, General Jacqueminot, and Marechal Niel. And who would dare to
talk of laces that could not give a French or Dutch or Irish name to them?
Or, when painted pictures instead of woven ones were under discussion, who
would venture to admit that he had heard for the first time the names of
some of the Old Masters, or did not know any of the Flemish School, or
could not at least touch his hat to a Gainsborough or a Romney? There were
"old masters" in wool as well as on canvas, as the Gheordez rugs most
particularly prove, and though the artists' signatures are missing or
meaningless, their classification is important. Once learned, and then
difficult to remember withal, rugs answer to their names like old and
familiar friends. If Homer catalogued the ships, surely the masterpieces
of the Eastern loom are worthy of brief nomenclature.
The Persians come first, and perhaps in the following order of excellence:
Kirman, Sehna, Kurdistan, Khorassan, Serabend, Youraghan, Joshghan
(Tjoshghan), Feraghan, Shiraz, Gulistan, Mousul, etc. The rug dealers
frequently speak of a "Persian Iran," but as Iran is the native expression
for Persia, the name is as tautological as are the dealer's laudatory
adjectives. So far as the term "Iran" can be differentiated, it is now
applied with some propriety to rare old Persian rugs of fine weave only,
whose proper name may be in doubt.
Among the Turkish rugs, which are mainly those from Asia Minor, the
Yourdez (or Gheordez), the Koulahs, Koniahs, and Ladiks are by far the
finest, and then come the Bergamas, vying often for like high honour, the
Melez, and many others which are vaguely classed as Anatolians.
From Turkestan come the numerous Bokharas and the more uncommon
Samarkands; from Afghanistan, the Afghans and the Khiva, and
Yamoud-Bokharas. But the two rugs last named seem to have a doubtful
paternity, and should perhaps be classed with the other Bokharas.
Beluchistan sends but one type, which is generally unmistakable, although
Afghans, Bokharas, and Beluchistans all have a family likeness.
To Caucasia in Russia are credited the Kabistans, Shirvans, Chichis
(Tzi-tzis), Darbends, Karabaghs, Kazaks, and Gengias, also the Soumacs, or
so-called Cashmeres. The first four of these are somewhat similar in
character, and not many years ago were generally sold in this country
under the indiscriminate title of Daghestans. We are more specific in our
knowledge now, and can classify and differentiate an old Baku rug, or a
Kuba, which is a Kubistan, and therefore what we used to call an antique
Kabistan.
India provides us only with some fine large carpets mostly of modern make,
and also with many imitations of Persian rugs, made in part by machinery
like the current substitute for a Turkish towel.