Image of Armenian Women Weaving Carpets – 1907

Below is a fragment from the book “Peoples of All Nations: Their Life Today and Story of Their Past” by John Alexander Hammerton, a British encyclopedist described as “the most successful creator of large-scale works of reference that Britain has known” by the Dictionary of National Biography, a book of reference of notable figures in British history.

The caption under the image of Armenian women making carpets reads: “Neither the Turk nor the Kurd is remarkable for artistic talent, but the Armenians, with a culture going back to the age of Babylon, have, like the Asiatic Greeks, coloured minds of their conquerors with the old native arts.

Here we see two fine Kurdistan carpets being made by little Armenian maids, under supervision of older women, while a finished carpet hangs ready for sale between the two looms.”