Late 19th century, 128 x 104 cm, North West Persia, Azerbaijan

Collection VOK: Caucasus - Persia 62

This finely woven kilim cover is composed of two panels of distinctly different widths. In the upper section, a rectangular open field is surrounded by closely spaced polychrome hexagons enclosing diamonds decorated with points. The motifs are arranged to form borders on three sides and a wide design panel at the bottom. As is typical of nomadic flatweaves produced in separate sections, the designs are misaligned along the vertical line separating the two panels. Due to the lavish use of white, the decorated sections of the cover appear to have been drawn on a white ground. The central part of one of the diamonds is woven in metal-wrapped threads. A narrow additional border of cruciform shapes constitutes the bottom finish of the kilim. – Very rare and visually striking, this textile was identified as a horse cover by Sadighi in 1996. He points to similarities in ornamentation to certain North Persian kilims from the Varamin-Garmsar region, but he believes that this cover is a Kurdish weaving from the Maku region of Azerbaijan. – Completely preserved, minor rewoven areas. Mounted onto canvas.

VOK, IGNAZIO, Vok Collection. Caucasus-Persia. Gilim and other Flatweaves. (Text by Hamid Sadighi) Munich 1996, no. 62