Plate Seventeen
4 feet 10 inches x 6 feet 6 inches
147 cm. x 198 cm.

The hand-spun white cotton field acts as the ideal ground fabric on which to place the undulating compartmentalized trellis pattern used here and for the next plate. These kelims are the only two known examples from what must have been a rare early group of Caucasian slit-tapestry weavings and both are prototypes for many later examples which were woven in the Caucasus as well as by weavers from other areas, particularly the Kashgai tribes of Iran.

While plate nineteen would seem to belong to this group, its materials and design suggest that it was made in a different weaving area and at a later period.




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