New Acquisition 2.0 — Unsure About Age and Attribution

[Marta Korczynska Junior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Marta Korczynska]

Hello everyone,

Although I know I’m still far from the marvellous rugs you share in this forum (maybe one day I’ll get there…), I’ve recently acquired another study piece — this time online. I was drawn to its wild abrash and the asymmetry in the central field - ven if I realise that such layout shifts are not rare in Baluch (?) work (…and I admit, also tempted by the very affordable price). After being so impressed by your kind help and knowledge last time, I thought I’d post again — if that’s okay and you won’t consider my posts as spam.

I’ve tried to research the attribution, but I got stuck — is it a Baluch piece? Or Trukmen? In the meantime I found rugs with the Ovadan-Gyra motif attributed to both groups, which only added to my confusion,... I was hoping it might be a genuinely early 20th-century example, but now that it has arrived, I’m not so sure anymore if it is not a younger, mid-century piece...

I would greatly appreciate any feedback regarding its origin and age :-)

Greetings,

Marta

[Marta Korczynska Junior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Marta Korczynska]

few more Fotos...

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

Dear Marta,

Your interesting rug says "Baluch group" to me. Let's see what others have to say.

Joseph

[Marta Korczynska Junior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Marta Korczynska]

Dear Joseph,

Thank you very much for your helpful response.
In the meantime, I have found a rug with an analogous design of the Ovadan-Gyra motif all around in the archive of the discussion for Turkotek Salon 98, dedicated to Baluch aesthetics. It appears in a post by Bob Kent from May 30, 2003: http://www.turkotek.com/salon_00098/s98t3.htm
Bob presented his rug as an illustration of copper red abrash in his Baluch pieces.

If Bob’s attribution was correct, then—even though the colour palette of my rug is quite different—it seems that my piece migt indeed belong to the "Baluch group" as well. In that sense, your initial impression seems very likely to be right.

With best regards,

Marta

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

Hi Marta,

Your research found a good match to your rug, at least with respect to the motif. Unfortunately Bob didn't comment on that piece beyond the color, but it is clearly very close to yours. The long kilim ends and restricted color scheme suggest latter 19th century. These Baluch rugs with the vine border come from northeast Persia, the Khorassan region with the major market in Meshed. Yours has a simpler version of the more common border, and your weaver used the border motif as the field motif as well - just like Bob's. This is seen occasionally on Baluch work; it is not a common practice.

Regards
Chuck

[Marta Korczynska Junior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Marta Korczynska]

Chuck –

Thanks a lot for the designation of my rug! So it might even be an end-19th-century piece—very interesting. And regarding the Khorassan attribution—I looked at this group of Baluch rugs and found quite a few that have a very similar colour palette and border design. So this rug is a genuine tribal piece made at a household level, right?

I’ll keep looking for more information about the reasons for abrash in tribal weaving and how it was perceived within those weaver/societies. Though something tells me that the variation within the traditionelly/culturally embedded colour palette that was simply a means to express certain motifs (?) had such pragmatic reason, that maybe it was not even preceived by the time.

Thanks again!

Marta

[Heinz Kamping Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Heinz Kamping]

Marta,

I found some additional information confirming Chuck’s comment. It seems a typical border pattern was used as the pattern for the main field. A Turkmen wavy vine undulating around highly abstract palmettes frequently occurs in Baluch rugs from the Torbat-e-Haydari region in North East Persia, Khorasan.

Heinz

[Marta Korczynska Junior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Marta Korczynska]

Dear Heinz,

Thank you very much for the additional information and the references regarding the possible origin of Baluch rugs with wavy vine main borders. I wonder whether a connection to the Torbat-e-Haydari region would also apply in cases where the wavy vine motif is used as the main field pattern. Well, we will probably never know for certain. Still, I’ve learned a lot once again.

I really appreciate your help!

Best regards,
Marta