Joel Greifinger

Hi all,

Motivated by the salon, I was leafing through Parsons' Carpets of Afghanistan and came upon a Baluch-type rug that has a clear resemblance to one that I have wondered about. Parsons describes this first piece (colour plate 109) as an "Oldish Ghormaj mat" from a "small two-street town" of that name "some thirty kilometres west of Tchitchaktu". These are often mislabeled as Taimani, despite the local population being made up of "Durrani Pashtuns, some Uzbeks and a few Aimaqs-but virtually no Taimani." Such rugs have "all but disappeared from the market."



According to Parsons, typical of these pieces are: i) coarse and rather loose weave; ii) simple and uncrowded geometric designs; iii) a tendency to use purple and orange; and their generally small size.

I think this "Baluch balisht" may be a close cousin, perhaps made in Ghormaj around the same time. It's one of those rugs that is almost impossible (for me) to photograph in a way that reproduces the colors nearly the way they look up close...



Any other relatives out there for a potential Ghormaj rug reunion?

Joel Greifinger

James Blanchard

Hi Joel,

I think that one of yours is charming...

I have no idea if this belongs in the family, but I suppose it fulfills some of Parsons' criteria.

James

Chuck Wagner

Hi Joel,

I regard this namak donneh to be from the Ghormaj area; for what it's worth, Parsons agreed with my assessment:



Regards,
Chuck Wagner

Joel Greifinger

Hi Chuck and James,

I thought that I recognized Chuck's salt bag. I finally realized that he had posted it before on TurkoTek in one of the most interesting archived discussions, Dyes and Ethnographic Value: http://www.turkotek.com/misc_00004/discussion.htm

Continuing through Parsons and heading south from Ghormaj, I came to the towns of Tulak and Farsi whose large production of Taimani prayer rugs are marketed in Shindand. A typical design is this three mihrab with characteristic Taimani star motif border:



Since I began this thread on a family reunion note, I can't resist posting a photo of what looks to be a Shindand Taimani relative. This is the first pile rug I ever bought:



Any Taimani cousins out there?
Joel Greifinger

Filiberto Boncompagni

Hi Joel,

This is a belated answer to your request for Ghormaj rugs:



These mats are my very first purchase of Oriental Rugs, 23 or 24 years ago.
They were sold as Afghani and ridiculously cheap, but they hold - as "first" - a special value for me. They could be Ghormaj, perhaps.

Still in the belated theme, thanks to Dinie. This salon is a welcome addition to my Parsons book.

Regards,

Filiberto

Paul Smith

Joel, et al...

Thanks to Filiberto for going back to the Ghormaj example. And, by the way, what a cool table of interesting things sits on top!

When I saw these examples, I wondered if this bag face was of a similar ilk. Coarsely knotted, with fabulously rich, saturated colors.

Paul

Richard Larkin

Hi Joel,

You mentioned the “…characteristic Taimani star motif border.” I wasn’t aware this was especially a Taimani design. Would you consider the following example to be Taimani on that basis? (Please pardon the non-optimum photo.)





The weave of this rug is fairly refined for the type.

Rich Larkin

Filiberto Boncompagni

Hi Paul,
Thanks. Actually that's not a table, it's one of those brass brazer used in the M.E. for the coffee pots - on the left side there are two of them, quite old.

I converted the brazer to a display case by adding a glass. Inside there is the belt section of my Caucasian silver collection. Four of the five belts are also dated: 1893, 1900, 1914, and 1937 – which makes the task of age attribution much easier.

Regards,

Filiberto

Joel Greifinger

Hi Rich,

"Me neither", as we used to say in my old neighborhood. I was just paraphrasing Parsons' caption for the three mihrab prayer rug that he attributes to Taimani around Shindand.

I own a Baluch vanity bag with the same star border that I never thought to be Taimani, but perhaps it is?

Joel Greifinger

Richard Larkin

OK, Joel. I suppose, as with many things Baluch, the star border could be "characteristic" for the Taimani, and for any number of other clans. Thanks for the clarification.

Rich Larkin

Joel Greifinger

Hi Rich,

It's probably best if I let Parsons speak for himself on the matter of stars.
He notes of the rug I posted (Colour plate 97):
"A typical example of the better pieces marketed in Shindand. Note the 'star' motif so often seen in the Taimani production, and also copied and incorporated by the transhumants who cross Taimani country during migrations."

Unsurprisingly, I've seen pieces with this border attributed by other authors to other Baluch and related groups. It got around.

Joel Greifinger

Chuck Wagner

Hi all,

It's been quiet here for a while so I'm going to toss in a few posts of 20th century Afghan weavings that have some relation to comments made in Parsons' book, or from our personal communications. Several have been shown before over the years.

For the first, the star border motif referenced above is found on work from few different areas in far western Afghanistan; after examination, Parsons opined that the following piece was from the Farah region (a thorn in the side of one of the Williams lads, who tried chasing weavers' ghosts in the field recently with little success - sorry guys !, but Dick was there 40 years ago, remember ?). Farah is a little further south from Shindand, where he was finding the Taimani goods marketed. He didn't suggest that this is Taimani work:





Regards,
Chuck Wagner

Chuck Wagner

Hi all,

In his section on Sheberghan production, Parsons provides a black & white image of a border design described as typical of Kizilayak work. A session in the rug bunker, flipping through the red rug heap, produced a piece with a similar border. I asked him about this piece, and was instructed to read more carefully:



A couple pages further on he describes work by the Chob Bash of the Sheberghan region, and points out that on such pieces "Occasionally, the white in the quadrant is replaced by a pale red, obtained by lightly dyeing white Kandahari wool". In combination with the more typical Chob Bash gul - an octagon with an animal motif - this placed the rug firmly in the Sheberghan Chob Bash category. A guesstimation of age was 1940-ish.

Regards,
ChucK Wagner

Dinie Gootjes

Hi Joel and all,

I have been away from the computer for the last 3 weeks or so, but while in Holland we ran into another member of the Ghormaj clan, I think. We took it with us, and it would like to join the family reunion, even if rather late:



It is nice to see all these different Ghormaj rugs. They did not sound or look particularly attractive in Parsons' book, I thought. And though they still are not on my top 10 list, they are attractive in their own, rather rustic way. More so than I expected. Thanks, Joel.

Dinie

Rich Larkin

Hi Joel and all,

Do we have an agreed set of criteria for Ghormaj rugs, beyond what you mentioned in the opener to this thread? It doesn't see that a "small, two street town" would have been able to produce every small format Baluch rug with loose weaving and geometric designs. Does reading Parsons "which I don't have" add much?

Rich Larkin

P. S.: Filiberto, regarding your Arabian coffeepots. I'm sure you've seen the coffee bearers moving through social gatherings with the pot in one hand and a stack of thimble-sized, handle-less cups in the crook of the other arm. They would pour the coffee into a cup by directing a stream from that curved spout into the cup and drawing the pot back quickly a distance of maybe half a meter, then straight back to the cup to cut of the stream. And they would never spill a drop. It used to impress the heck out of me.

Filiberto Boncompagni

Hi Rich … you forgot the part “with the other hand holding and clicking two or more cups”.
You bet I did: I spent quite a while over there

Impressive, I agree. I still prefer a good, less glamorous espresso, though.
Marhaba,

Filiberto

Joel Greifinger

Hi all,

Welcome back, Dinie and thanks for bringing your find to the reunion.

Rich asked,
Here is Parsons' description: "The Ghormaj rug was coarsely constructed, with simple rustic designs, making it one of the most 'tribal' looking rugs woven in Afghanistan. Many were prayer rugs, usually less than 1m x 1m and rather squarish in shape. A common feature of these pieces was the wide kilim at both ends, sometimes with double fringes, often simply but effectively decorated. Rugs having a cross-latch design and seldom exceeding 200 x 125cm were also made; these pieces quite frequently contained camel coloured wool."

Since this is pretty far from "an agreed set of criteria", it leaves me free to propose this piece for membership in the family, as well:



Joel Greifinger

Dinie Gootjes

Hi All,

Rich said:
Parsons mentions that the Ghormaj production is often confused with Taimani rugs from the province of Ghor. He suggests that Ghormaj is often erroneously thought to be the same as Ghor, but also mentions that Ghormaj rugs resemble the Taimani weave. Colour Plate 96a from the salon shows a Taimani rug that is probably more finely woven than a typical Ghormaj, but the general impression is not too different, I think. Parsons also mentions the loose weave of certain types of Taimani rugs. So, as Rich suggests, not all loosely woven rugs with geometric designs are from Ghormaj. One man's Ghormaj may be another man's Taimani. And who will decide who is right?

Dinie