What is this?

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

I recently bought this "Vintage Antique Hand Knotted Woven Middle Eastern Tent Band Fragment Segment" on Ebay at a low price from a seller in the US. I am not sure at all what it is, if it is from the Middle East, what its age may be and if it really is a tent band fragment. In fact, it reminds me of some Scandinavian items I have seen, although this is just guessing on my part. Here is some of the description from the seller: "This product is a unique vintage antique hand-knotted woven Middle Eastern tent band fragment made of wool. It is a small rectangular piece with intricate detailing and an antique finish, making it a one-of-a-kind original piece."

Any ideas?

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

Hi Erik

This piece has the warps in the direction of the width. If it was a tentband the loom would have to be as wide as the length of the band. That's pretty nearly impossible. Perhaps it was a belt or a sash.

Steve Price

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

Steve,

So, you can see an image ? I can't.

Regards and HNY
Chuck

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

Chuck, I hope you can see this picture!

[Guest Close Guest]

Closer look at the technic needed

[Guest Close Guest]

It looks like an embossed work. The white ground is kelim and the motifs are piled

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

Unfortunately, I have not received the rug yet, but here is a somewhat closer look provided by the seller:

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

Hi Erik,

From the closeup image it appears that weft floats were used for the red but not the black reciprocal triangles. This unusual feature aside, your textile looks to be some sort of weft substitution weave. We would need to see the reverse or back side to confirm this. In weft substitution weaves weft floats are typically seen on the reverse where a particular color is not needed for the design.

See http://www.turkotek.com/Marla/The%20...l%20Weaves.pdf

Joseph

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

Thank you, Joseph, for you interesting comment! I will add pictures of the reverse, when I receive the rug, which is still on the other side of the Atlantic.

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

Yesterday I finally received the two small rugs, which look somewhat like Swedish röllakan to me, although I bought them from a seller in Arizona as "Vintage Antique Hand Knotted Woven Middle Eastern Tent Band Fragment Segment". I cannot see any difference between the reverse and the front:



Here are some more close-ups:

There is a differences in the background white colour between the two rugs, the second one looking a bit "shabby":

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

Erik,

We really need input from experienced weavers here, or at least someone more familiar than I am with the many weave structures and weaving techniques. That said, after consulting several articles by Marla Mallett and others, the absence of obvious weft floats on the back would appear to rule out a typical weft substitution weave. Except for the slightly raised (puffed up) red triangles, which could have been fashioned using supplementary weft wrapping (or possibly brocade), your textile would appear to fall under the general category of a "plain weave", assuming that both the design and the colors are the same front-and-back. However, it does not appear to be a simple balanced plain weave but rather one of the variants. For example, from your closeup images some parts appear to feature diagonal design elements. Double cloths are yet another category of weaving but here the colors are reversed thereby creating a positive-negative effect front-to-back (here yarns are hidden between the two layers when they not needed for the design). However, most double cloths are limited to only two colors, except for some complex, multi-warped weaves.

I'm afraid that's all I have to offer.

Joseph

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

Just want to add that I found other textiles with what appear to be similar structures and designs described as weft-faced twill weaves. I'm not certain but in some of the closeup images of your sash(?) (not just the red triangles) the wefts appear to be going over more than one warp.

Joseph

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

Thank you, Joseph, for your very interesting and knowledgeable analysis of the weaving! Any thoughts about the origins of these items?

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

Hi Eric,

Joel Greifinger has some knowledge of Scandanavian textiles; maybe he will comment. It certainly doesn't look like any Middle Eastern or Central Asian work that I've seen.

Regards
Chuck