AH 1233 (=1820 AD) dated Shirvan Prayer rug, Azerbaijan. Ralph Kaffel's Caucasian Prayer Rugs, plate 70. 123 x 142 cm

The design of this prayer rug is related to a small group of rugs with very early dates, an example of which is illustrated as plate 31. Most rugs from this group have silk and or cotton in their foundation, which indicates that these were weavings of the highest quality made for presentation or other special occasions. This derivative example is from Shirvan. Its ivory wool warp and red woollen weft correspond exactly to a very similar rug sold at Lefevre in 1979, this rug was also assigned to Shirvan and dated to the first half of die nineteenth century. Another very similar example was acquired by the Austrian collector Peter Trimbacher for Schloss Plankenstein, yet another was published by Skinner s in 1989. All four rugs share the same leaf-and-calyx border and a hexagonal cartouche with stylized confronting dragons.
Trimbacher points out that rugs with this design continued to be made unto the 20th century, variously assigned to Kazak, Fachralo or Genje.