huli
k’ang cover
karolya
khaden
kopan
moj
Navajo rugs
neyden
pardaghy
postaghi
pound blankets
blazon. An armorial bearing or heraldic device.
bleaching. Dyes in rugs may fade due to exposure to sunlight. Rugs may be deliberately bleached through a chemical wash. Chemical bleaching was used to produce the so-called “golden Afghans” and “golden Shirvans.” Red Afghan rugs were bleached to a shade of yellow to satisfy market demand before yellow-dyed yarns were actually used in these rugs. Some Sarouks were bleached and then painted to satisfy color tastes of the American market. Bleaching is accomplished through a variety of chemical agents. These include oxidizing agents such as hydrogen peroxide, acids such as sulfuric acid, alkalis such as ammonia and lye, and chlorine and its compounds. See “burning,” “chemical wash,” “strip”, “tip fading,” “ultraviolet light,” and “patina.”
bleeding, running. Dyes that are improperly fixed or dyed yarn that has been inadequately washed after dyeing may bleed or run into other colors in a finished rug. Some red dyes are particularly susceptible to running. There are chemical washes that effectively remove some red dyes from areas into which they have run.
blocking. See “tentering.”
bloom. To add ingredients to the dye bath which increase the brightness of colors.
Blossom carpet. See “floral carpet.”
blue. A primary color. In Near Eastern weavings, this color may be produced by synthetic or vegetable dyes. By far the most common blue dye is indigo. See “indigo.”
bobbin. A cylinder, spindle, or spool on which yarn, thread, or roving may be wound during the spinning or weaving process.
Bode, Wilhelm von. 1845-1929. German scholar, founder of the Museum for Islamic Art, Berlin, rug collector, and author of the first comprehensive treatise on the classic period of oriental rugs, Vorderasiatische Knüpfteppiche aus alterer Zeit, published in 1902.
body Brussels carpet. A loop pile rug in which different color warps are brought to the surface to form the pattern. Because colored warps are continuous beneath the pile, they provide “body” or thickness and weight to the rug.
bogu. A Chinese rug motif consisting of representations of bronze, jade, or porcelain vessels and other antique objects.
bohça. See “bokche.”
bokche, bohça, boqcheh (Turk.). A Turkmen envelope-like bag consisting of a square flatweave with pile woven triangles at each side of the rectangle. The triangular pieces are folded inwards to form a container. In general, any square piece of cloth used as a carrying bag for many different items.
Turkmen bokche Dr. Herbert J. Exner
Ottoman embroidered bohça Sothebys
Bokhara, Bukhara. An ancient city and emirate of West Turkestan, presently in Uzbekistan. The name is popularly used to describe any rug, Turkmen or otherwise, with designs consisting of or derived from Turkmen guls. Bokhara was an important rug trading and shipping center in the nineteenth century. A few scholars have attributed rugs to Bokhara, but such attributions are questioned.
Boldaji. A small town south of the Chahâr Mahâl region in western Iran. It is a source of Bakhtiari panel design rugs.
Bolvardi. See “Bulvardi.”
Bombyx mori. The domesticated silkworm moth. See “silk.”
Borchalu. A tribe of the Hamadan region of Iran. Contemporary rugs of this tribe have curvilinear, floral medallions. They are single-wefted and woven with the symmetric knot at a density of about 65 per square inch. The foundation is cotton and wefts may be blue. See “Borjalou” and “Hamadan.”
border. A design around the edge of a rug and enclosing the field. The border usually includes a wide band of repeating design called the main border and subsidiary borders called guard stripes. See the following entries:
| ashik | lab-i mazar |
| bala-khachi | leaf and calyx |
| barberpole border | Laleh Abbasi |
| bird head border | medahil |
| broken border | meander borders |
| carnation border | Naldag border |
| cartouche border | palmette border |
| chamtos | pearl border |
| check border | Qashqa’i frieze |
| chichi border | rainbow border |
| crab border | reciprocating border |
| crenellated border | rosette border |
| cloud band border | running dog border |
| çubuklu | sainak |
| curled leaf border | sari gira border |
| dagdan | sawtooth border |
| elibilinde | “S” borders |
| flag border | shekeri border |
| fret | soldat border |
| Greek key | split leaf arabesque |
| gul-i badam | swastika border |
| Herati border | T band |
| koca baş | turtle border |
| kufesque |
Bordjalou. See “Borjalou.”
Borjalou, Bordjalou. A town located south of Tiflis (Tbilisi) in the Caucasus. Originally, this was a settlement for Borchalu tribespeople deported by Shah Abbas from the Hamadan district in the seventeenth century (cf. “Borchalu”).
Nineteenth-century rugs attributed to Borjalou often have broad
