Help me determine the age of my tekke turkoman rug!

[Joakim Karvonen Junior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Joakim Karvonen]

I found it from red cross charity shop for 22 euros and Google says it's tekke turkoman amd I'm pretty sure it's genuine but age is still unknown.

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

You got a good deal on it but it’s a newer copy possibly made in Afghanistan. There is a Tekke design on for sure but not in the traditional way. A lot of these were made with the unfortunate ability to bleed dye. If you place a damp rag on it, the color may transfer within seconds. I have a very similar rug and although I like it, I have to be careful for bleeding.

[Joakim Karvonen]

(Link to commercial site deleted - please see paragraph atop page. Steve Price)

This rug is almost identical and it's supposed to be traditional tekke. There are others with similar design on internet that claim to be genuine.

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

Hi

First, welcome to Turkotek. We really prefer that people post under their actual names rather than with pseudonyms. If you'll be good enough to send me (sprice@vcu.edu) your name, I'll edit your profile so that it displays when you post. That will become your user name and you can use it when you log in.

Second, although traditional Tekke rugs look superficially similar to yours, the palette of your rug isn't in the Tekke tradition.

Regards,

Steve Price

[Joakim Karvonen Junior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Joakim Karvonen]

Took new pics with adjusted white balance etc amd color palette became much more authentic.

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

Hi Joakim and welcome to Turkotek,

Here's a link (below) to a thread that has several examples of the color palette(s) to be expected on traditional Tekke rugs and carpets; I agree with Joe, yours looks like a modern product of Pakistan or Afghanista

Regards
Chuck

http://www.turkotek.com/misc_00092/tekke.htm

[Joseph R. Putnak Member Find all posts View Profile Close Joseph R. Putnak]

Age aside, perhaps the rug in question has been subjected to a "chemical wash" at some point, which would have altered the color palette. From the images provided I do not see evidence of running/bleeding dyes.

Joseph

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

Age aside, perhaps the rug in question has been subjected to a "chemical wash" at some point, which would have altered the color palette. From the images provided I do not see evidence of running/bleeding dyes.

Joseph

That's what it looks like to me, too. I've never heard of Tekke (or any other Turkmen group) weavings being subjected to chemical washing.

Steve Price

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

I too didn’t see signs of bleeding. But, It could be a real possibility as mine doesn’t look like it either until a damp cloth is applied. I will not drop names but a well known person in the rug community who travels regularly to Afghanistan and Pakistan told me the final washing step is neglected in most cases with rugs produced over the last 50 years or so and bleeding can be expected.

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

I may be out in the wilderness here, but this doesn't look like Afghan (unless it was a Tekke group that had moved south after the Soviet takeover) or Pakistani production to me. It looks like... a Tekke Turkmen dip khali from well into the Soviet period, like 1930s-40s or something. Yes, the palette is not a traditional Tekke madder red--not what you see in, say, 1880--but it's not unusual for mid-20th-c. production. It could have gotten a chemical wash, but... there is still a fair amount of pinkish red on the front, so I don't think it has been chemically-treated, though the dyes are surely all synthetic.

[Mikko Saikku Junior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Mikko Saikku]

Tend to agree with Paul--my guess would also be early Soviet production (the design of Pakistani copies is usually a bit different with flattened guls). Over the years, I've seen a couple of similar Tekkes that have experienced some sort of chemical treatment.

Mikko Saikku