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Added some pictures
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The colors and harmony are exquisite on your piece. I’m sure the blue and red will look stunning under an eye loop. Did you find this in Turkey or Hamburg? I’m not sure if it’s still the case, but Hamburg was a fantastic location for rugs. I have many fond memories of city and have spent a lot of time there.Joe Lawrence -
Thank you for your comments. I bought it in Turkey many years ago. I'm glad you know Hamburg. Please get in touch if you visit Hamburg again.Comment
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Could someone offer an estimate of the rug's age? The high proportion of aubergine-colored wool leads me to believe that the rug dates from the first half of the 19th century, or even earlier.Comment
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Dear Heinz,
I have insufficient experience to suggest a date of manufacture for your Cihanbeyli Konya rug. However, the resemblance of the central medallion design on your rug and the East Anatolian Kurdish rug you show in the third and fourth images leads me to believe that there was likely a common source rather than independent development. Interestingly, according to Wikipedia the Cihanbeyli district does have a significant population of Kurds as well as Turks. However, I found no information about the region’s demographics in the nineteenth century.
At the risk of betraying my ignorance, is it known which ethnic or tribal group made your rug and other rugs of this type? Might it also have been made by Kurdish weavers like the eastern rug? And, if we are looking at design transfer here, might this have occurred East to West? Finally, if the design was transferred how quickly might this have happened, i.e., could these two rugs be almost contemporary ? More questions than answers…
Joseph
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Dear Joseph,
My understanding is that these carpets were previously identified in publications as Kurdish pieces from eastern Anatolia, but they actually originate from the region around Konya. As evidence, I have included an excerpt from a catalog by Rippon Boswell.
“ In carpet publications, the few comparative pieces are almost always described as East Anatolian Kurdish rugs (except in Bausback), possibly from Sarkisla. We now know that these rugs were woven by the Kurdish population of Cihanbeyli in the Konya region and its surroundings.“
Heinz
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Hi, Heinz;
Thank you for the explanation. Returning to your rug - do you see any evidence of indigo sulfonic acid or cochineal (carminic acid) based dyes? It is my understanding that the use of carminic acid dyes (whether from mexican cochineal or from local scale insects) may pre-date circa 1800, but not sulfonic acid based dyes.
JosephComment
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Hi Joseph,
Thank you for your very interesting comments. The rug does indeed have sections with cochineal, especially in the three large medallions and in the lines within the white hexagons set in the medallions. There are also several re-knots in a lighter red. The outer secondary border and the area containing the medallions are a dark aubergine. I've added more photos. I hope the cochineal is visible; it doesn't seem to show up clearly in the photos.
One further observation: the weaver apparently miscalculated the spacing and had to compress the main border considerably in the upper section, as the overall length of the carpet was already determined by the warp threads.
Heinz
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Dear Heinz,
Thank you for the additional images. I can see the cochineal-dyed areas clearly now. To amend my earlier post, while it is true that Mexican cochineal entered the Near East and Anatolia by the seventeenth century it was very valuable; therefore, virtually inaccessible to peasant dyers in the more remote villages. This leaves us with cochineal from the Canary Islands (post-circa 1820), or a local source of carminic acid dye (note: most local scale insects are comparatively poor in carminic acid content).
In your new closeup images I can also see areas dyed with that appears to be a fairly uniform mid-green. This color may have been achieved by using woad (traditional method) or by using a soluble sulfuric acid extract of indigo (indigo sulfonic acid) plus a yellow dye. The latter method avoided the laborious vat/fermentation indigo dyeing process. When used alone indigo sulfonic acid can also give a pale blue, which almost always tip-fades since it is not light-fast. It is my understanding that indigo sulfonic acid, which developed in Europe well before 1750, was used in Anatolia by circa 1830 (for e.g., see Rugs of the Peasants and Nomads of Anatolia, Bruggemann, W., H. Bohmer). Chemical analysis is generally required to distinguish natural indigo from indigo sufonic acid dyed wool.
Based on this information a date for your rug in the first half of the nineteenth century is certainly possible.
JosephComment
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Dear Joseph,
Thank you very much. Your post was very informative and educational.
HeinzComment
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