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    The Oriental Rug A Monograph on Eastern Rugs and Carpets, Saddle-Bags, Mats & Pillows, with a Consideration of Kinds and Classes, Types, Borders, Figures, Dyes, Symbols, etc. Together with Some Practical Advice to Collectors.
    The Oriental Rug A Monograph on Eastern Rugs and Carpets, Saddle-Bags, Mats & Pillows, with a Consideration of Kinds and Classes, Types, Borders, Figures, Dyes, Symbols, etc. Together with Some Practical Advice to Collectors.
    The Oriental Rug A Monograph on Eastern Rugs and Carpets, Saddle-Bags, Mats & Pillows, with a Consideration of Kinds and Classes, Types, Borders, Figures, Dyes, Symbols, etc. Together with Some Practical Advice to Collectors.
    Ebook146 pages1 hour

    The Oriental Rug A Monograph on Eastern Rugs and Carpets, Saddle-Bags, Mats & Pillows, with a Consideration of Kinds and Classes, Types, Borders, Figures, Dyes, Symbols, etc. Together with Some Practical Advice to Collectors.

    By W. D. (William DeLancey) Ellwanger

    ()

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    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherArchive Classics
    Release dateNov 27, 2013
    The Oriental Rug A Monograph on Eastern Rugs and Carpets, Saddle-Bags, Mats & Pillows, with a Consideration of Kinds and Classes, Types, Borders, Figures, Dyes, Symbols, etc. Together with Some Practical Advice to Collectors.

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      Book preview

      The Oriental Rug A Monograph on Eastern Rugs and Carpets, Saddle-Bags, Mats & Pillows, with a Consideration of Kinds and Classes, Types, Borders, Figures, Dyes, Symbols, etc. Together with Some Practical Advice to Collectors. - W. D. (William DeLancey) Ellwanger

      The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Oriental Rug, by William D. Ellwanger

      This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with

      almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or

      re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included

      with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.net

      Title: The Oriental Rug

      A Monograph on Eastern Rugs and Carpets, Saddle-Bags, Mats

      & Pillows, with a Consideration of Kinds and Classes,

      Types, Borders, Figures, Dyes, Symbols, etc. Together with

      Some Practical Advice to Collectors.

      Author: William D. Ellwanger

      Release Date: July 13, 2010 [EBook #33144]

      Language: English

      *** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE ORIENTAL RUG ***

      Produced by The Online Distributed Proofreading Team at

      http://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images

      generously made available by The Internet Archive/American

      Libraries.)

      THE ORIENTAL RUG

      Larger Image

      Plate I.

      ANTIQUE LADIK

      Prayer Rug

      From the Collection of Mr. George H. Ellwanger

      Size: 3.10 x 6

      Title Page Text

      Copyright, 1903

      By Dodd, Mead and Company

      Published September, 1903

      PREFACE

      That Oriental rugs are works of art in the highest sense of the term, and that fine antique specimens, of even modest size, have a financial value of ten, fifteen, or thirty-eight thousand dollars, has been recently determined at public auction. At this auction, several nations had a representative voice in the bidding, and the standard of price was fairly established. The value of rugs may have been imaginary and sentimental heretofore; it is now a definite fact, with figures apparently at the minimum. What the maximum may prove, remains to be seen.

      Choice old rugs, therefore, to-day come into the same class with genuine paintings of the old Dutch School; with canvases of Teniers, Ruysdael, Cuyp, Ostade, or whatever similar artist’s work may have escaped the museums. They vie in prestige with the finest examples of Corot, Diaz, Troyon, or Daubigny; and in monetary supremacy they overtop the rarest and grandest of Chinese porcelains.

      And yet the Oriental rug, as against such competitors for the wealthy collectors’ favour, has hardly a history, and is practically without a name or a pedigree. Experts will tell you at a glance whether or not your Wouverman is genuine, or inform you where every true Corot was owned or whence it was bartered or stolen. In Chinese porcelains, the knowing dealer will easily prove to you not only under what dynasty but in what decade or year a particular piece was produced.

      The painting has descent, signature, or the brush mark of a school to father it. The Chinese vase, bowl, or jar has its marks, cyphers, stamps and dates, and an undoubted genealogy to vouch for its authenticity. The rug must speak for itself and go upon its intrinsic merits. It is its own guarantee and certificate of artistic and financial value.

      The study of Oriental rugs, therefore, can never lead to an exact science or approximate dogmatic knowledge. Whoever is interested in them must needs rely upon his personal judgment or the seller’s advice. There is practically only one current book authority in the premises.

      A new volume on the subject would thus seem to be well justified. It is the hope of the author that this book may prove itself sound and practical, and that it may help to make more clear and simple the right appreciation of a valuable rug.

      W. D. ELLWANGER

      Rochester, N.Y.

      , 1903

      CONTENTS

      LIST OF PLATES

      THE MYSTERY OF THE RUG

      The Oriental Rug

      Chapter I

      THE MYSTERY OF THE RUG

      To judge of an Oriental rug rightly, it must be looked at from several points of view, or, at least, from two aspects; against the light and with the light. From the first standpoint, against the light of knowledge, speaking figuratively, there may be seen only a number of rude and awkward figures in crude colours scattered erratically on a dark or dingy-looking background, a fringe of coarse and ragged strings at either end, and rough frays of yarn at the sides. This is what is accepted by many people as an Oriental rug. And indeed this is what most rugs are.

      If, on the other hand, we view our rugs with the light of a better wisdom and happier experience, we will see the richest and softest of colours, the most harmonious shadings and blendings, medallions brilliant as jewels, or geometrical designs beautiful as the rose windows of a cathedral; or, again, graceful combinations of charmingly conventionalized flowers and delicate traceries and arabesques,—all these displaying new glories of ever changing and never tiring beauty. Each woven picture, too, is as soft to tread upon as a closely mown lawn, and caresses the feet that sink into its pile. These are Oriental rugs as their admirers know and love them.

      Perhaps the chief charm of all such beautiful rugs is in their mystery. Their designs are odd and strange and full of hidden meanings, and their effects are often evolved from the crudest and clumsiest figures, hooks and squares and angles; they owe their wealth of colour to simple vegetable dyes from the woods and fields and gardens, and yet the secret of many of these dyes is still a secret, or has long ago been lost. The places whence the rugs come, the people who make them and those who sell them, all are mysterious and hard to know and understand.

      Moreover, broadly speaking, there are no experts on the subject, no authorities, no literature. He who would know them must

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