Afghan Baluchi Balisht very long

[Joe Lawrence Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Joe Lawrence]

My wife and picked this up a few weeks ago in Ankara. Although we are not well versed on Baluchi weavings, we found the colors very striking and the unusual size of 20 x 150cm called out to us. We are not sure of the age but with the goat hair bounded sides, we can assume it’s not too recently made.

My question is has anyone seen one this size? Or what its purpose was? I can imagine it was used for sitting. The top is opened and it has loops also goat hair to secure it. I put the stick in the loops to even them out. It’s temporary.

[Chuck Wagner Administrator Find all posts View Profile Close Chuck Wagner]

Hi Joe,

That is an unusually long one. I don't know that anyone has ever been able to nail down a definitive purpose for balishts (boleshts, baleshts); rug lore is that they are used for pillows and stuffed with cloth goods and clothing. Could be. I have several and have never found anything inside suggesting another use. This particular design is referred to in the trade as Seh Mihrab (seh = three in Farsi), and are typically attributed to the Sistan region. The Zabol area has been mentioned by some writers. I think anywhere from Sistan and going north up to Herat is probably reasonable. It's a popular design; a lot of them have been made.

Regards
Chuck

[Joe Lawrence Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Joe Lawrence]

Thank you Chuck. Great info and it’s always nice to learn something new.

[Joe Lawrence Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Joe Lawrence]

I am in the long process of going over every textile we own to complete an overall inventory and explanation of the different pieces. This includes knot counts, attribution, construction, wool type etc.

Since this is one of my oddball pieces, I had to search for it to look at the comments and notice the poor quality of the original pictures. The piece is much nicer than originally pictured and has a very silky feel and shine to it. Here is an updated pic. Please feel free to add your comments concerning location and tribal group.

[Joe Lawrence Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Joe Lawrence]

One more pic.