Small Cloud Band Kazak (Chondoresk)
160 x 119 cm (5' 3" x 3' 11")
Armenia, ca. 1880
Condition: very good, scattered low pile
Warp: wool, weft: wool, pile: wool

Cloudband Kazaks from the village looms centred around Chondoresk in the northwest part the Karabagh in the southern Caucasus typically display at least two medallions containing these snake like forms.
The cloudband and pinwheel form are thought to be derived from earlier examples in Chinese art and can often be seen in the art of Iran and Turkey used as an abstract decorative device, but here there is a hint of the design returning to its earlier zoomorphic origin.
It's interesting to note that the yellow forms in the upper and lower corners and the red flower form only appear on a certain number of these carpets and which also have in the top and bottom of their fields an additional small band of decoration (here small flowers on a green ground), suggesting that this is a small group within a group.
The rich pile and deeply saturated colours show this to be particularly good example of this surprisingly uncommon group of weavings.