of
the dyes used in the fine old rugs and in the best rugs of to-day, that
for one or two colours resort was, and is, had to mineral dyes. Many of
the best old Turkish specimens have thus suffered in their blacks and
browns, and many a museum exhibit is eaten to the warp where these
colours occur. It may be well to remember this, as some varieties of
Mousul and of Turkish weave, thus worn to the warp in spots, leaving the
other figures raised and in relief, are palmed off on the innocent
purchaser as rare, "embossed" pieces. Iron pyrites is the mineral from
which these black dyes are made, and some Turkish weavers seem to know no
vegetable black or brown. In some of the best Persians, Serabends
particularly, the green which is used in the borders has the same fault as
the Turkish blacks and browns; and if it does not "fade away suddenly like
the grass," at least it leaves the nap "cut down, dried up, and withered."

[Illustration:

PLATE III.
ANTIQUE KAZAK
FROM THE COLLECTION OF MR. ERICKSON PERKINS
Size: 5.9 x 7.2]

The subject of the various dyes might be extended to a separate monograph,
for really the whole history of rug making depends upon the dyes used. The
day that the aniline, petroleum dyes came into use doomed the perfect
making of carpet or rug; and not all the strictest laws of the Medes and
Persians--which is to say, the Shah of Persia--have availed to prevent the
use of the mineral dyes, and the complete demoralization of modern
weaving. You may find even in choice, closely woven, artistic Shirvans and
Kabistans of fifteen and twenty years ago some few figures in certain
colours which are clearly and manifestly aniline. They are the strong reds
and especially the bright orange. And in some modern Kurdistans, which
should be free from guile, a few figures betray the same telltale glaring
_media_. Used with a sparing hand, as they are, they do not ruin a rug,
but they are none the less a blotch upon its fair repute. The theory is,
so far as concerns the new Kurdistans, for instance, that these few
mineral dyes are bought by the weavers from some traveller or agent by
chance and inadvertently, and without knowledge of their character.
Otherwise they would hardly be used for a few figures in a finely woven
piece, where all the other dyes are vegetable.

One expert Armenian has a sure test for mineral dyes in his tongue. When
in doubt he cuts a bit of wool from the rug, nibbles it a minute or