Antique Kuba Soumak rug, Northern Kuba or Southern Daghestan Region, early 19th century. Victoria and Albert Museum. no. 249. Given by Sir Charles Marling in 1911. 7 feet 1 inch x 3 feet 8 inches. 112 x 216 cm.

Warp - white wool, 22 to one inch.

Weft - colored wool, 18 rows to the inch. There is a binding weft of white wool, one shoot of which is put through after each row of the pattern weft.

Soumak method of weaving is used more in the Caucasian district than in any other part of the East, though small pieces of carpeting of very similar technique are also found in Turkestan and the adjoining parts. _ vm

This example is unusually fine in texture and is smaller than the majority of Soumaks, which generally measure about eight by ten feet.

The design of the field is simplified and conventionalised arrangement of the well-known Persian patternof large palmettes and rosettes evenly distributed throughout the field. The border has a well-known Caucasian pattern, sometimes called the "Georgian", after the Province of Georgia. In its origin it appears to be a running wave with a floral sprig in the base and a leaf-form branching from the crest of each undulation. It is a pattern that is frequently misunderstood. In the present example there is a white figure on the blue part of the ground but sometimes in books sketches of the border are given in which it is obvious that the ground has been taken for the figure and altered in shape until the true pattern is quite lost. This border occurs twice in a large soumak in the Museum (No. 245), and three times in a Caucasian pile rug (No. 399-1880)