A Flock of Sheep in the Living Room

From the late 1800s many towns of the Kuba district were centres of production for Soumac rugs but most were produced in workshops and exhibited a certain order in the design.

How can one tell if a rug is a village rug filled with soul and not a workshop?

When one sees evidence of ‘soul’ in the rug, it is likely to be a village rug, designed and created start to finish by one individual.

In this one for instance, there are the usual 3 medallions. But the central one is green! This is not at all common.

The most important part of this rug is the presence of animals in the field, that once again is not common at all.

There are 18 animals of which two have horns.

Many of these have designs on their bodies and many have legs that are made of a different color or are they wearing boots? Clearly, the attention paid to the animal motifs is significant and much thought has gone into the creation of each. One even has five legs!

More time spent mooning over the rug leads to more things to love – the barber-pole borders around the yellow medallions, the white borders, the well-developed eagle wings, the macrame fringe, the signature / inscription …. the discovery of unexpected elements goes on.

So it may be said with reasonable certainty that this is a traditional village rug and not a workshop rug.

And it can be said with complete certainty that this rug will entertain & stimulate me for a very long time.

See more of 1413 here on wovensouls.com – it is one of those pieces that one cannot stop taking photos of!

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jm

Oct 2019