Oriental Rugs - Peter F. Stone

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inch. See “Romania.”

      Braşov, (Hungarian Brassó), Kronstadt. A city of Romania and a contemporary trade designation of quality for Romanian rugs with woolen foundation and a knot density of about 100 per square inch. Inventory records show that hundreds of Turkish carpets were imported into the city during the early sixteenth century. The “Black Church” of Braşov held more than 100 of these “Transylvanian” carpets it received as gifts. See “Transylvania.”

      brazilwood dye. A dye made from any of a variety of leguminous trees of the genus Caesalpinia. The dye produces purple, red and black shades. The dye was a major export of colonial Brazil. This dye was used in early Chinese rugs.

      brazilwood

      breast beam, cloth beam. The lower beam of a vertical loom. The beam nearest the weaver in any loom where the weaver has a fixed position. On a horizontal loom, the beam nearest the weaver’s first weft. See “beam.”

      (British) East India Company. Strictly, “The Honorable East India Company.” A company founded in England in 1600 to conduct trade with India. The trade included carpets woven in India. The Company’s first carpet factory was established in Masulipatam in 1611. The British East India Company played a significant role in India carpet production and trade into the middle of the nineteenth century. See “India.”

      India Company Arms of the East

      broadloom. A power-loomed rug. More specifically, a power-loomed rug in a solid color and/or more than 54 inches in width.

      brocade. A patterning in a fabric achieved with interlaced supplementary wefts. Supplementary wefts may be continuous or discontinuous. The term is incorrectly applied to weft wrapping structures. Brocade and weft wrapping may occur in the same weaving. The term may be used to indicate patterning with metallic threads. See “embroidery,” “extra weft patterning,” “overlay brocading” and “overlay-underlay brocading.”

      Brocade

      broche carpet. A wool carpet of clipped and looped pile. Patterning is provided by the clipped areas. See “cut-and-loop.”

      broken border. A border which is not confined by a straight line around the field. The border design may occasionally penetrate the field or a field design may break into the border. Some Kerman rugs, some French rugs, and some Chinese rugs have such borders.

      Broken border (Chinese rug detail) Jason Nazmiyal

      Brousa. See “Bursa.”

      Brousse. See “Bursa”

      brown. In Near Eastern weavings, this color may be produced by a variety of natural dyes or, more rarely, it may be the natural brown color of sheep’s wool. Vegetable dyes for brown include oak bark and acorn cups, walnut husks and pomegranate rind. Cutch or catechu (the heartwood and pods of an Asiatic tree) is a brown dye used in Far Eastern weavings. Like black, natural brown dyes embrittle wool and produce etching when used with an iron mordant. See “etching.”

      Brusa, Brussa. See “Bursa.”

      Brussels. A power-loomed carpet in which extra warps are looped around wires in the weaving process. If the loops are left uncut, the rug is termed “Brussels.” In some looms, the wire is grooved and a knife, running down the groove, cuts the loops to form cut pile. In this case, the rug is termed “Wilton.” The Brussels carpet process was developed in Brussels in about 1710.

      Bucharest. A trade designation of quality for contemporary Romanian rugs with cotton foundation and a knot count of about 70 knots per square inch.

      buckles. Ridges or wrinkles in a carpet due to improper installation or weaving faults. See “cockle,” “cornrowing,” and “grinning.”

      buckthorn. Rhamnus petiolaris. The unripe berries of this shrub produce a yellow dye with an alum mordant.

      Buckthorn

      Buddha’s Hand, foshou. An Asiatic fruit, citrus medica, whose form suggests a hand. It is sometimes represented in Chinese and Tibetan rugs and symbolizes wealth and honor.

      Buddha’s Hand

      Buddhist symbols. A collection of eight “precious things” or “treasures” symbolic of good fortune and emblematic of Buddhism. They are used singly or collectively as motifs in Chinese and Tibetan rugs. The symbols are the wheel, conch, umbrella, canopy, lotus, vase, fish and Ch’ang or endless knot. See entries under these names. See “Confucian symbols” and “Taoist symbols.”

      Bukhara, Bokhara. A city of Uzbekistan populated by Uzbeks and Tajiks. The city is a source of suzanis woven by Tajiks. Turkmen rugs are erroneously referred to as “Bokharas.”

      Bulgaria, Thrace. A country of southeast Europe. Bulgaria was a source of nineteenth-century rugs made in imitation of the Gördes prayer rug. Bulgaria is a minor source of contemporary pile rugs with floral designs based on Persian models. These rugs are woven in Kotel and Panagiurishte. Bulgarian kilims are sometimes referred to as “Thracian.” The slit-weave tapestry structure is most common. Red is dominant and colors are stronger than those of Turkish kilims. Nineteenth-century sources of kilims include these towns: Berekovica, Chiprovtsy, Gabrovo, Kotel, Samokov, Şarköy, Sliven, Sumen, Teteven, and Zaribrod. There are some antique kilims with Bulgarian inscriptions. West Bulgarian kilims are finely woven and employ curvilinear wefts. East Bulgarian kilims are more coarsely woven, with darker colors than those from the west, and they are more like Anatolian kilims. Contemporary kilims are woven in Chiprovtsi. See “Cerga,” “Kotel,” and “Şarköy.”

      Bulgarian kilim (detail) Kazim Yildiz

      buli. In Bangladesh, memorized verbal instructions for the creation of a specific pattern by a weaver. See “talim.”

      Bulvardi, Balvardi, Bolvardi. A subtribe of the Qashqa’i. They reside near Shiraz in southwest Iran. See “Qashqa’i.”

      Bünyan. See “Kayseri.”

      Burdur. A town of western Anatolia and a source of rugs in designs based on Persian models with modern colors. Knot densities are about 130 knots per square inch on a cotton foundation. The asymmetric knot is used.

      Burdur rug (detail) Yurdan

      burling. Inspecting and repairing newly-woven factory-produced rugs. More specifically, hand-tufting void areas that occur in power-loomed rugs.

      burning. When caustic solutions are used to fade a rug, an excessively strong solution may fuse some wool fibers in the pile. This condition is termed “burning.”

      burn test. Used to determine the type of fiber in rugs. A very small sample is exposed to flame. Bright burning, the smell of burning paper, and a fragile, fine ash indicate cotton. Barely sustains flame, strong odor of burning hair, and ash in an elongated ball indicate wool. Does not sustain flame, indistinct smell, and small ash ball indicate silk.

      Burnt Water. See “Pine Springs.”

      Bursa, Brusa, Brousse, Prusa. A town of northwest Anatolia, south of Istanbul. Bursa was the first capital of the Ottoman Empire and Ottoman court rugs may have been woven there in the late sixteenth century. In the nineteenth century, Bursa was the

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