Saturday at Keshishian's
It was a bad weather day in the Washington DC
Area but not nearly as bad as the radio was
making it out to be. But despite the weather or
maybe because of it business was good at Mark
Keshishian and Sons. Towards the end of the
day I said, "Harold, show me something
interesting for the web site." He
volunteered this unusual Eagle Kazak. Blue ground
Eagle Kazaks are rare.
Most of the blue ground Eagle Kazaks are old
or not really Eagle Kazaks. For instance Zejwa
Rugs often share this design but are made
north and east where these were made. For a
beautiful example of an old one take a look at
the The
Eberhart Herrmann Eagle Kazak Rug.
For further reading:
N.B. Why are red ground Eagle Kazak rugs more
common that blue?
- Professor George
A. Bournoutian wrote in The
Khanate of Erevan Under Qajar Rule 1795 -
1828 that in Erevan the Russians
taxed blue dyers at a higher rate than
red dyers. So blue cost more than red. In
addition to the tax keep in mind that
Indigo was imported and madder red the
most common red was grown in the
Caucasus. We attribute these rugs to the
J'reberd area in northern Nagorno
Karabakh which came under Russian rule 22
years before Erevan. So while I am not
sure but I think it reasonable to assume
that the Russians used a similar tax
structure in two provinces that were next
to each other.
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