CHAPTER VIII LOOMS, WARP, AND WOOF CONSIDERATION of materials used in the making of rugs and their colouring is naturally followed by close study of methods of manufacture, and examination of the paraphernalia of which the weaver makes use. In order to determine the age of a rug we should know how to detect differences in the weave incident to the sort of loom that has been employed, the manner of tying the knots, and the way of using even the most primitive implements. Much is revealed. in this way, and we may trace the nationality and sometimes the tribe of the weaver by noticing the finish of the sides. of the rug, the nature of its selvage, and various other details. Shuttles, bobbins, needles, spindles, etc., made originally from fish and animal bones and shells, each and all claim our interested atten Tufts- Flat weaves. Silvages. Section wreving Tight spriming tion, and we find that invention has al Warts Hoof Trimitive Looms ways responded to necessity. Prior to the rearing of looms, the weaving of narrow fabrics was accomplished, LOOMS. ETC. by all peoples in early stages of the art, by fastening yarn threads together and attaching them by one end to a hook or to anything stationary, while the other end was firmly tied to the weaver's body. Into this simple webbing patterns were introduced so as correctly to join with other pieces, and when made into a complete material the narrow weave is not at once noticeable. All sorts of simple contrivances antedate the making of looms as we know them, and the trained eye looks for the evidences of ancient craftsmanship which we sometimes find manifested in the tapestries (or khilims) of the Orient even now. In the old days of mediæval development of Orien tal ideas, after the Crusades, names were given to the then foreign ideas which were taught in the convents, and which became known by Latin names. As sidelights on the history and manufacture of rugs, all that we can learn of early methods is of immense assistance, for in old embroidery copy-books are sometimes. found borders named and described that have been taken directly from Oriental rugs. Tail-pieces in old books, designs on coins, and the details of many other things of contemporary interest, while proving the arts to have been interdependent, one interpreting another, at the same time enable us to place styles of weaving and pattern in a most authoritative way. In the "Opus Pulvinarium," or "tent-mosaic" stitch we constantly find Turkish and Caucasian designs, and are sometimes surprised to discover in old samplers, especially in such as contain designs which have been appropriated by the Greek church, many Scutari and Asia Minor motifs. Looms may be, as they ever have been, either upright or horizontal. Thrown over the extended limb of a tree or upon an erected frame, the warp threads are stretched. Through these the woof thread, wound on a shuttle, is passed and forced tightly down into place, and the whole fabric kept taut according to rules and ways that differ with the individual workman. In studying the finished rug we learn to note many of these peculiarities. We find that in some rugs, besides the simple finish on the sides, there seems. to have been applied an extra over-and-over decoration, sometimes of one colour but often of several. In other makes the outer thread of the warp is much heavier than the others, and about it a solid colour is twisted, giving the effect of a heavy cord binding to the sides of the rug. Again a checker-work effect is produced by alternating the colour of the binding yarn with which the side cords are covered. Some weavers allow the webbing to extend in simple warp and woof beyond the part of the rug tied with knots, and, as in Shiraz and Beluchistan rugs, into this webbing, or embroidered upon it, patterns of a distinctive nature are wrought. The fringe of a rug will sometimes indicate the method of its manufacture, showing a heavy braided and looped end which held the warp thread with great firmness upon the loom, or it may reveal an inadequate and flimsy way of stretching the warp, which is also detected in the ruffled surface of the carpet itself. Modern ingenuity and brain control is helping the Oriental to a knowledge of the latest and most approved methods, and rugs are less apt to be crooked RUG-PLATE IX "T SHIRAZ RUG Loaned by Mr. James W. Ellsworth ORIENTAL EXPERT'S DESCRIPTION HIS exceedingly interesting and beautiful specimen was probably made in the eighteenth-century, and is very lustrous and silky. The design is well distributed in tree forms throughout the field, and the pattern in the webbing which extends beyond the pile is clearly and carefully wrought." S. S. Costikyan. |