PROBABLY GENJE, SOUTH CENTRAL CAUCASUS, CIRCA 1850

The rich, golden-wheat ground of the present rug is decorated with a totemic column of angular quatrefoil plants and serrated leaves which could be symbolic of a 'tree of life'. This same design is found on a smaller rug illustrated by Peter Bausback, Antike Orientteppiche, Brunswick 1978, p.165f. The narrow main border is decorated with a series of polychrome crab-palmettes which, together with the multiple narrow guard stripes, woven structure and colour palettte, are characteristic of the weavings produced in the old Khanate of Genje in the central Caucasian region.