A Seychour rug, Northeast Caucasus,

Hali, Issue 149, November-December 2006, pg. 43.

Seychour, a town south of Derbend, was first mentioned as a weaving center in western accounts by Le Chavelier Gamba and Don Juan Halen in the early nineteenth century.  It was not until the 1960s, however, that Ulrich Schürmann in his esteemed volume Caucasian Rugs gave rugs from this region the name Seychour. The design of Seychour rugs vary and it is the structure that can help one identify these weavings. Wefts and warps are usually beige, ivory or gray, and are made of fine, loosely plied wool. Seychour weavings range from plush pile rugs to soumac pieces. The lot offered here is an example of a fine high-quality wool pile rug. The use of the many shades of blue and madder red and the fine weaving indicate that this rug could belong to a group of Seychour weavings that were made for export to Persia, where such quality pieces were in high demand, see Tschebull, Raoul, "Zeikhur," Hali, April 1992, Issue 62, pg. 88. In its rosette border design, the present lot shares many similarities with other Seychour rugs, see Tschebull, ibid., figs. 2, 11, 17, 20, 21, 22 and 23.  The yellow guard borders of this rug, however, are unusual for Seychour pieces. The chain of stylized S-motif is very different from the wave-pattern generally used on these rugs. A rug with similar guard borders is published Herrmann, Eberhart, Kaukasische Teppichkunst im 19. Jahrhundert, München, 1993, pl. 15 and was sold Sotheby's New York, April 10, 1997, lot 65. The field design of the lot offered here is even more unusual than its guard borders. More common design elements used on Seychour weavings are the well-known diagonal cross motif, the 'Alpan' and 'Bijov' designs, 'Vase' pattern derivatives, and different floral patterns. The present lot does not fit into any of these categories and can be described best as having a design that is an amalgamation of the 'Alpan' and the 'Bijov' patterns with a clear influence from seventeenth and eighteenth-century Azerbaijan silk embroideries, such as lot 12 in this sale, that had an important role in the development of the 'Alpan' motif, see Tschebull, op. cit., pg. 89. The weaver of the present lot seems to have taken the medallions from 'Alpan' pieces and fused them with  elements, such as stylized flowers, from the 'Bijov' pattern, creating an intriguing and highly unusual piece.  Another superb rug with a similar medallion is the 'Tiftikjian' Kuba rug in the collection of Jim Burns, see Burns, James, The Caucasus: Traditions in Weaving, Seattle, 1987, pg. 33.  The design of the 'Tiftikjian' rug is more symmetrical and directly linked to those of embroideries with the medallion flanked by four ivory stylized dragons and smaller star medallions.  Interestingly, both the 'Tiftikjian' rug and that offered here are in excellent states of preservation which indicates that they have each been highly valued pieces by their respective owners over the years.