Often mistaken for village rugs of Northwest Persia or the Caucasus, Kurdish rugs and carpets have only recently come to be appreciated for their distinctive design and exceptionally beautiful use of color. 

With its allover design of diamond medallions with ‘latchhook’ embellishment, this arresting example might at first appear as a Kazak or Karabagh weving from the Caucasus just to the north of Persia. Yet a closer look reveals the more subtle use of color along with the tessellated effect reminiscent of ‘millefiori’ glass in the areas between diamonds.  This tessellation is so closely spaced that the dark brown/black ground appears as little more than an outline around the smaller, colorful millefiori forms. The narrow borders of botehs, rosettes, and triangles pick up on the use of colorful, small-scale elements in the field.