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Chi
Chiadma. A tribe of southwest Morocco. Their rugs have a burgundy field with scattered diamonds or small geometric elements. Their flatweaves employ the slit tapestry structure.
chichak lameh. A design motif, flower and bud, used primarily by Turkish-speaking weavers. It consists of a single flower with leaves or buds on both sides springing from the same stem. There are many geometric versions of this motif.
Chichak lameh
Chichaktu, Chichaksu, Tchitchaktu. A town of northern Afghani stan. Major rug production began in this town in the early 1970s. The designs used are prayer rugs and variations of ensi designs. Colors are dark, similar to Baluchi rugs. The asymmetric knot is used on a wool foundation.
Chichaoua. See “Oulad Bou Sbâa.”
Chichi. A design attributed to Kuba in the Caucasus. The distinctive border consists of diagonal bars alternating with large blossoms. Kuba rugs with this border have a mean knot density of 105 symmetric knots per square inch. Their average area is 25 square feet. Wefts may be either cotton or wool. See “Chechens,” “Dara-chichi,” and “Kuba.”
Chichi rug (detail) Grogan & Company
Chichi border. A distinctive border of Kuba rugs of the Caucasus attributed to the Chechens. It consists of a diagonal bar alternating with a large geometricized rosette.
Chichi border
Chief’s blanket. A flatweave blanket woven by Navajos with simple designs. This blanket is narrower warp-wise than it is weft-wise. Colors are some combination of red, black, blue, or brown on a white field. There were no chiefs among the Navajo, but these blankets did indicate some prestige because they were finely woven.
Chief’s blankets are classified in three phases according to design evolution. First phase design consists of stripes only. Second phase design consists of stripes with blocks or groups of rectangles inserted within the stripes. Third phase design consists of diamonds or crosses superimposed over stripes. Third phase designs were created after the Navajo internment at Bosque Redondo. See “Navajo rugs” and “serape.”
Chief’s blankets
chikh. See “reed screens.”
Chila, Khila. A town west of Baku in the Caucasus, to which are attributed nineteenth-century rugs with an all-over boteh field with stepped spandrels and containing a stepped central medallion. These are the largest of Baku rugs with an average rug area of 41 square feet. They have wool warps and either wool or cotton wefts. Their mean knot density is 88 symmetric knots per square inch. See “Baku.”
Chila rug (detail) Sothebys
Chila-boteh. See “Chila.”
child’s serape. A Navajo wearing blanket about 2½ feet by 4 feet. See “Navajo rugs.”
Child’s serape Grogan and Company
chilin. See “ky’lin.”
Chilkat. Indians of the Pacific Northwest. They weave fabrics on warp-weighted looms using a weft twining structure.
Chilkat apron R. John Howe
Chimayó. A town of New Mexico and a source of rugs and blankets of Navajo design. These are primarily stripes and diamonds.
China. Rugs of China are considered to include those of Manchu ria, Mongolia, and Xinjiang. Rugs were primarily woven in northern China. A Chinese saddle blanket from Lop Sanpra was dated to about 100 B.C.E. A few pile rugs have been dated to the Ming dynasty. Domestic pile rug production in China was quite small until production for export began in about 1890. Rug-weaving centers predating rug production for export include Ningxia, Baotou, Suiyuan, and the towns of Gansu. See entries under these names.
Commercial rug production for export began late in the nineteenth century in Beijing and about the turn of the century in Tianjin. Tianjin became the center of large-scale commercial production from about 1910 to 1930 as foreign firms came to dominate the Chinese rug industry. American firms in China included Karagheusin, A. Beshar & Co., Donchian, Avanosian, Kent-Costikyan, Elbrook Inc., Nichols Super Yarn, and Fette-Li. Throughout the early twentieth century, the United States was the largest importer of Chinese rugs. The peak period of rug production and shipment to the United States was 1925. In the early 1930s, rug production was interrupted by the Japanese invasion. Large-scale commercial production was not resumed until the 1960s.
Chinese rugs use the asymmetric knot with occasional use of the symmetric knot in edges and ends of early examples. Chinese rugs are not finely knotted, varying between 30 and 120 knots per square inch. Some early Chinese rugs have asymmetric knots that are offset on warps or skip warps at curving borders of color changes. See “offset knots” and “packing knots.” Early rugs have no warp offset, while later rugs have offset warps, some with closed backs.
Contemporary Chinese rugs are woven in cooperative factories. There is consistent quality in these rugs due to the use of steel looms, chrome dyes, and objective production standards. The “line” is the contemporary measure of knot density. See “line.” Woolen carpets are woven in 70, 80, 90, and 120-line qualities. Silk rugs are woven in 120 to 300-line qualities. Pile heights for wool rugs are ⅜, ½, and ⅝ inch. The pile height for silk rugs is ½ inch. The Chinese rug trade designation “Super” means a 90-line rug with ⅝ inch pile height and a closed back.
See “Buddhist symbols,” “chair covers,” “Ch’ing dynasty,” “closed back,” “Confucian symbols,” “Fette rugs,” “fret rugs,” “k’ang covers,” “line,” “Ming dynasty,” “Nichols,” “open back,” “pillar rug,” “Taoist symbols,” “trigram,” and “yin yang.”
See the following geographic entries: Baotou, Beijing, Gansu, Guizhou, He-bei, Jehol, Lop Nor, Lop Sanpra, Mongolia, Ningxia, Niya, Shanghai, Shantung, Suiyuan, Tianjin, Xinjiang.
China
chinakap, chinikap. A Turkmen cup or bowl case. This may be a bag or a bowl-shaped container with a lid and a pendant strap. It has an overall length of about one foot. Chinakaps are made of pile, embroidered cloth, wood, or leather.
Chinakap
Chindi drugget. A drugget made of waste fabric. See “drugget.”
chiné.
