What is your favorite rug or textile?

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

I probably post way too often for the reserved Turkotek user and I’m probably on the radar for a permanent ban due to excessive bandwidth usage.

Please post an example of your favorite rug or textile either from your own collection one that is owned by another or even one that may reside in a museum. I will post mine later pending the activity of this post.

If you are inclined, please describe why it’s a favorite. Hopefully this post will draw some attention and we can admire some works of art.

[Steve Price Administrator Find all posts View Profile Close Steve Price]

Hi Joe

Asking people to choose their favorite textile is like asking them to choose their favorite kid. But this one is certainly high on my list.




First, because it shows the Belouch aesthetic so perfectly. Every one of the 9 birds are identical in every way except color. The wool is delicious. There are 10 silk knots scattered throughout, which raise the question, Why? They are virtually invisible from more than a foot away.

Finally, and perhaps most important, it was formerly in the Vanishing Jewels collection that belonged to Marvin and Frederika Amstey. When I saw it in an auction catalog, I called Marvin and asked if it had been stolen. He assured me that it wasn't. That's how we met, and we've been friends ever since.

Steve Price

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

That is a stunning piece Steve and a very interesting story on acquiring it. I did find the published example on page 88 in Vanishing Jewels. The birds really make the piece and I haven’t seen many with them.
I would like to imagine the silk was added for the love of a family member such as a son or husband. Thank you for posting it.

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

Hi Joe,

I'm with Steve on this one; I have no single favorite piece. The best I can do is a favorite piece in each genre, starting with this one. Most pieces shown here are tribal or village rugs. This is a village rug I think, but at the high end of workmanship, done by a highly skilled weaver probably working from cartoon. It's from Kirman, and a close look at the knots will convince you that these are probably vegetal dyes (at least the greens and light blues. The range of the palette exceeds that of most Kirman pieces. This is a small mat, about 18 x 26 as I recall. Quite thin, single dark blue selvage cord, tightly woven and knots packed down (generally).

Regards
Chuck

[Konstantin Lapochkin Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Konstantin Lapochkin]

I understand this is not a valuable item. Some syntetic dyes and also time beaten. Bot i kind of like it a lot. Someting armenian from 1927

[Steve Price Administrator Find all posts View Profile Close Steve Price]

Hi Konstantin

I think it's rather attractive. We don't discuss market values here, but I will mention that there are collectors who value inscribed Armenian rugs.

Best

Steve Price

[Erik Persson Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Erik Persson]

This was a difficult question, but at Chuck's suggestion I will make it a little easier by selecting three rugs in different categories.

Here is my favourite antique silk rug:



http://www.turkotek.com/VB56/forum/m...ll-mystery-rug

And here is my favourite "modern" silk rug:



http://www.turkotek.com/VB56/forum/m...scriptions-say

To choose a favourite among my small collection of Turkmen rugs is more difficult, but perhaps this Tekke Kap will do:

[Erik Persson Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Erik Persson]

Joe, now we are all waiting for your favourite rug...

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

You guys have posted some stunning pieces! I now understand how difficult it is to have one favorite. Out of the 80-100 pieces I have probably 40 would be my favorite but I have always been drawn to this piece.

This Qashqai bag which I assumed started its journey as a double bag has been well used and probably could use a bath. The colors are brilliant and the use of green was added sparingly on the face. I don’t see any bleeding or loss of color so I can assume it’s all natural dyes. I would guess it from the later part of the 19c but I have no facts to back that up. The backside was creatively drawn up and if the sides were not intact, I would have opened it to display both sides.

I am always drawn to pieces that were used in daily life vs those made for the commercial market. Obviously I have no way of telling the history of this piece but sometimes little clues are left behind to help our judgement on a piece. In this case, small grain particles inside the bag along with its overall condition helped me come to my conclusion.



view from the top before I created a new border for the “dice” motifs to prevent anymore loss of material.



part of the backside.

[Steve Wallace Junior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Steve Wallace]

Rightio, this is not my favourite textile because as people say, it's not possible to have one. But it is the first item I bought, back in 1981, from Central Asia. It was bought in Kabul by some Aussies who used to go throughout the 'Russian' period and bring back lots of tribal and other items (A and L Copeland). I got it from an Adelaide dealer. I never got to go to Afghanistan due to Russians, and what followed it. Measures about 45 cm x 31 cm high; fringes about 35 cm. Goat hair strap .

Hope you like it
Steve

[Joel Greifinger Administrator Find all posts View Profile Close Joel Greifinger]

At the ICOC in Washington D.C. in 2015, there was an exhibition curated by Wendel Swan of woven pillows that featured Anatolian yastiks, Baluch balishts and double-interlocked tapestry (rölakan) åkdynas from Skåne in southern Sweden. As a collector of both Baluch and Kurdish weaving, I was naturally drawn by the first two groups, but it was the Swedish pieces that left me completely captivated.

In the years since, my collecting has almost completely shifted to 18th and early 19th century Swedish textiles. I’ve studied their social history, given presentations about them to rug and textile societies and published a piece in HALI on one tåcke (bed cover) in my collection. And, while choosing a favorite isn’t easy, this rölakan åkdyna from 1788 stands out as such an outstanding example of design, color and technical execution, it encapsulates the remarkable talents of the peasant women of that time and place.

The animal it features is a bäckahäst, a mythical horse that lures children onto its back and then leaps into the river where they drown. It was woven in SW Skåne.

[Erik Persson Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Erik Persson]

Joel, how nice for me who lives in Skåne/Scania in Sweden to see that you appreciate Swedish and Scanian textiles! And what a nice "agedyna" as we say in Skåne!

We have a few Scanian cushions in our house, but none as spectacular as yours. This will be my favourite, made by my grandmother in 1935:

[PaulSmith Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close PaulSmith]

My "one favorite" piece is hard to pin down. At the moment, I guess it would be this Shekarlu carpet.



...while a close second place goes to this very old Chub Bash Turkmen main carpet...



Tomorrow I'd probably make different choices...

Cheers, Paul

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

Hi,

Paul, I -really- like that Turkmen piece.

Steve, I have a somewhat similar bag; after things taper off here I'll post it.

As mentioned earlier, the best I can do is a favorite within a genre; I've done the cartoon style rug. Now, a village rug (or, so I think), which is a bit of a puzzle in that the structure points toward Ferdows, but the main border motif and end treatments point toward Afshar. A figural rug, likely a portrayal of Noor Ali Shah:



Regards
Chuck

[Guest Close Guest]

In the years since, my collecting has almost completely shifted to 18th and early 19th century Swedish textiles. I’ve studied their social history, given presentations about them to rug and textile societies and published a piece in HALI on one tåcke (bed cover) in my collection. [/ATTACH]

What issue Hali was your article in Joel?