The Yin and Yang or Taiji in Rugs of the East

Please look at the center for the Taiji or Yin and Yang design.

The Yin and Yang or Taiji (Tae-Kieh as it is called in some old sources) is a Taoist symbol of the dichotomy of duality in nature. Light and dark, male and female and so on are represented in the Yen and Yang. Notice in the common representation there is a circle of the other in each side.

The Art Institute of Chicago divides them as such:

The Five Phases

greater yang: wood and spring (east)

lesser yang: fire and summer (south)

greater yin: metal and autumn (west)

lesser yin: water and winter (north)

the central phase: earth and the solstices

http://www.artic.edu/taoism/tradition/introb.php

The Handle of a Rug

Uncle Jimmy Keshishian told me, "It's easy to be a rug expert, all you have to do is feel 10,000 of each kind." We may never get near 10,000 of each kind but we need to feel rugs and assess the handle. Here I compare two high end rugs from the back just by feel. You need to try this, take a few rugs that are known to you and feel it and see if you can describe what you are feeling.

Common words used to describe the handle might be "Board Like", when it is very stiff . "Meaty" is also thick and firm but not as firm as "Board Like". Rugs as soft as an Oushak rug are often called "Buttery Smooth". Visit a rug store and look around and feel the rugs and see what you feel.  It only takes a few before we start to identify Firm vs Soft. 

Antique Malayer Rug

Malayer Rugs are made in the area south of Hamadan and if my memory serves me  south by south east. This area is from the south of Hamadan into North Luristan Province. There is a wide variety of different rug patterns. The rugs are single wefted and are generally finer than most Hamadan rugs. Generally they have substantial construction of very good wool.

Flag Colors and Corrosive Dyes

Old Glory over Baltimore Harbor

Certain colors are new colors and some are old. What I mean by that is there is a wide range of colors and tones that are cheap and easy with synthetic dyes but more difficult and costly with natural or vegetal dyes. Think of flags, before WWI almost all flags were Red, White, and Blue. Why? Because these were the colorfast light stable colors.

As we can see in this 48 star American flag from WWI above;

And this Union Jack from British Empire. They, as do most old flags, rely on Red, White, and Blue.  White because they could use natural white of bleached white wool. The usual blue is Indigo a very stable dye that we know from Blue Jeans. The red is typically from Madder mordanted with Alum. However insect red is possible in flags as well but less common.
The key is that we had a limited pallet of stabile colors for flags and rugs. When we see orange, green, black and others we know it is more likely after 1920. Here we have a great example of new flags. These would not have been practical in 1915:

Post 1920 Synthetic Dyes

Here we have the program from the 'Football Association of the Irish Free State' defeating the Nazi German team at Dalymount Park in Dublin on October 17, 1936. The Irish Free State gained limited autonomy from the cruel heel of British oppression in 1922 when they adopted this flag. The Swastika flag was used from 1933 to 1945.

The Reyn Staffel Sauj Bulagh Rug Azarbayjan-e-Gharbi Province

Corrosive Dyes

We can see in the magnificent piece from Reyn Staffel above is corrosive dyes. The brown and black wears away leaving a sculpted look.

Black and Brown were possible earlier but they were considered the most difficult colors to achieve with natural dyes. It was also prone to fading.  Black was achieved by adding iron salts to the dye bath. The problem is that it becomes brittle and the wool wears away more quickly. When this happens we call it a Corrosive dye. Typically in Antique Rugs Surmey Blue is used in place of Black. Surmey is over dyed indigo repeating the vat dying process until it appears almost black.