A Boteh a Day Keeps the Covid Away

[Chuck Wagner]

Pat,

Proposed alternative name: Gul FUBARi....

:laughing_1:

Succinct and appropos....

Regards
Chuck

[Joel Greifinger]

Dear Pat,

Back in Post #58, a highly-respected boteh advocate wrote: "Boteh ad hominem attacks are not permitted! Botehs of all sizes, shapes and styles should be equally appreciated." I was moved by his generosity of spirit.

Which is why I am saddened by your recent remarks, to wit:

Arguably, one could infer that the oddly shaped protrusions on the vine of the "floral-vine meander border" could be construed as botehs.
But they are not incipient botehs, vestigal botehs, recumbent botehs or even residual botehs. They are "imaginary botehs".

https://i.postimg.cc/mZz6Stqb/Tiny-boteh1.jpg
https://i.postimg.cc/7h2sPW7C/Tiny-boteh2.jpg

I suppose that now you'll say you don't see the botehs in this one either. :cry:

https://i.postimg.cc/C1trggZT/TAfshar-wagireh-bag.jpg

Sometimes I fear that some people only see botehs where they want to see them. :duel:

Joel

[Patrick Weiler]

Joel,

Stunted Saz Sickle slivers are not botehs.
:rant:
:laughing_2:
Patrick Weiler

[Joel Greifinger]

Pat,

Excellent! The intervention has worked. Perhaps the fever has broken. :wizard: :applause:

I am almost convinced to join with the Filiberto and Chuck faction and claim that your bagface has no actual botehs in it.


No, it doesn't. :clap:

Stunted Saz Sickle slivers are not botehs.

Of course they aren't. :cheers:

But neither are the incipient botehs, vestigal botehs, recumbent botehs or even residual botehs

that you have been trying to pawn off as botehs. As you say:

They are "imaginary botehs".

:deadhorse:

Joel

[Joel Greifinger]

As a transition back to actual botehs :angelic:, may I offer this Sistan 'Baluch' interpretation:

https://i.postimg.cc/hv3rkJr1/Sistan-boteh-balisht.jpg

Joel

[Patrick Weiler]

As that famous bard, Fakespeare, once wrote,
"A Boteh is in the eye of the bagholder."
I reserve the right to recognize recumbent botehs.
:pie:
Patrick Weiler

[Chuck Wagner]

Hi,

Pat,

Just a reminder from the Bottom Bumper thread; botehs, with peg-legs, galore:

http://www.turkotek.com/show_and_tell/qfront1.jpg

and Joel,

Back to Baluchotek, most excellent :cheers: :

http://www.turkotek.com/show_and_tell/balbot1.jpg

http://www.turkotek.com/show_and_tell/balbot2.jpg

Regards
Chuck

[Joel Greifinger]

Chuck,

Those 'Baluch' botehs definitely have legs. :thumbsup:

Joel

[Dinie Gootjes]

Chuck,

What is that creature in the mihrab? A peacock with the extra head crossed out? A two legged horse with a bow in its tail? The possibilities seem endless. Enlighten us :sherlock:.

[Chuck Wagner]

Dinie,

In this case my take is that it is certainly a horse, with a verneh on its back and the tail wrapped and ribboned.


Pat, Joel, et al.,

Hijacking a dual purpose image from Joel's Threadbare post, I think it's interesting that some weavers maintain the pretense of boteh association with floral origins, and others just use the outline shape and then fill it with random stuff -as in my Baluch example, above, and this one of Joel's.

Or maybe these interior motifs represent a floral with heavy insect infestation:

https://i.postimg.cc/QM5yDtYm/yazd_jaq02.jpg

And on the topic of boteh origins, here's an interesting image to mull over:

http://www.turkotek.com/show_and_tell/yazd_jaq02.jpg

Regards
Chuck

[Joel Greifinger]

Hi all,

To return for a moment to the design on Jim's bag in Post #49 and the discussion that followed, I think this short excerpt from Jeff Spurr's essay on Kashmir shawls and their impact on Caucasian rugs, "Creative Encounters" (Hali 198, Winter 2018) is clarifying. Describing this Karabagh prayer rug:

https://i.postimg.cc/c40C61cm/Screen-Shot-2020-06-12-at-5-00-06-PM.png

he writes:

"The designs of some rugs combine a variety of Kashmiri imagery, as in a Karabagh prayer rug dated to 1869. Its main border comprises the usual diagonal stripes dotted with unusually elegant reflections of the original butis, here as diamond forms with curling tails at each end reflecting the little curving topknots and curling stems of so many butis, while similar tiny figures grace the red border of the arch. Its field is decoratated by vertical stripes exhibiting a highly-adapted vine scroll with flowers, modelled very generally after khat-rast jamawar of the type shown in (see below), dating to about 1840, but probably recieved through the intermediary of more robust Kermani termeh designs."

https://i.postimg.cc/m2jD9xXG/Screen-Shot-2020-06-12-at-5-18-56-PM.png

on the topic of boteh origins


The ongoing debates in Hali between Spurr and Frank Ames on the dating of Kashmir shawls and the spread of the boteh motif provide a good sampling of the available evidence.

Joel

[Patrick Weiler]

Joel,
The comparison of the Kashmiri design is quite convincing.
Chuck,
FUBARI? Sounds like the name of a rug book devoted to my collection!
:)
That interesting textile with the bird in the corner is rather confusing. I see a foot poking out from under a dress and the bird appears to be looking at a T-Bone steak with some beads that fell onto it.
:eek:
Here is a little bag which looked a lot better in the website pictures than in real life. I would say it is not as old as I am, which in rug parlance is semi-antique - less than 75 years old but maybe more than 40.
:flush:
http://www.turkotek.com/show_and_tell/PAT_W_kham10.jpg

There are no closure loops to match the closure tabs - perhaps the weaver was practicing the tab part but not the loop part, though the tassels are made in a technique similar to closure loops. It may have been either a small bag for a young child to use, or a practice piece, or possibly something to sell on the commercial market.

http://www.turkotek.com/show_and_tell/PAT_W_kham10a.jpg

It is 7" x 7-1/2" 17x19cm, with 7x7 asymmetric, open-left knots moderately depressed/ribbed back.

But, it has botehs!

Patrick Weiler

[Joel Greifinger]

Cute chanteh, Pat.

Here's a rather free spirited, well downright goofy :dancer:, Hamadan mat. Since it has botehs in the border, it gets a new virtual home in this here thread.

https://i.postimg.cc/j2bm438V/Goofy-Hamadan.jpg

Joel

[Patrick Weiler]

Joel,
I would describe that mat as a Ragireh.
:laughing_2:
Here is another piece with Borderline Boteh Borders.
It is a Bakhtiari salt bag, probably from the first half of the 20th century - optimistically dated. The orange and red may be from synthetic dyes - which doesn't discount that it was likely used by nomadic shepherds. There are films of Bakhtiari migrations into the mid 20th century.
It does have the typical Bakhtiari widely-spaced countered soumak and heavy black goat-hair overcasting of the selvages.

http://www.turkotek.com/show_and_tell/PAT_W_bumperbag.jpg

And, if you hadn't noticed, it also has a pile section at the bottom, so I will post it in the Bumper Bottom Bag thread, too.

http://www.turkotek.com/show_and_tell/PAT_W_bumperbag1.jpg

It is 15-1/2 x 18-1/2" 40x47cm with 6x6 symmetric knots - 36kpsi. You may notice a light blue tuft on the right hand side of the top cords. There is a very small iron ring attached to that blue cotton cloth, as though it was used to hang the bag when not being carried - the ring can be seen from the picture of the back. The white is cotton.

Patrick Weiler

[Joel Greifinger]

Here is another piece with Borderline Boteh Borders.

Ah, yes; akin to the

incipient botehs, vestigal botehs, recumbent botehs or even residual botehs
:nerd2:

Well, back in the non-borderline boteh arena, here is another transmigration of threads :wizard: from the Bumper realm.

These bag faces based on the Qashqa'i saddle design feature veritable chorus lines of little botehs in the borders. I'll merely call them SW Persian, in order to avoid a potentially unpleasant kerfuffle with Khamseh partisans.

https://i.postimg.cc/3wHRPqS7/IMG-0138.jpg

https://i.postimg.cc/sXj22hCN/IMG-0139.jpg

Joel

[Chuck Wagner]

Pat,

I'm not accustomed to seeing amulets so prominently presented on Bakhtiari work; I don't recall seeing anything quite like that one before. Nice catch.

And the botehs in your greybearded chanteh reminded me of this Uzbek piece:

http://www.turkotek.com/show_and_tell/bocap01.jpg

Also: Steak ?? No. Is boteh. Masquerading as kashqul. :fez: Shoof:

http://www.turkotek.com/show_and_tell/yazd_jaq01.jpg


Joel,

Ever since Pat relocated to Independent CHAZistan his incidence of mystical visions per post has increased markedly, interpreting bi-colored split running-dog borders motifs hallucigenically :dancer::dancer: , as revisionist ersatz botehs. etc....

Formerly the one to chasten those of us caught waxing poetic about squares, circles, and parallelograms, etc., it appears that those daze are uber for now...

So, I'll follow Joel's lead with a couple more examples of - b o t e h s - in the borders.

First, that piece of Joel's that I think Pat, in a moment of clarity, saw correctly as a wegirah, has jogged my memory. And if running-dog motifs can be botehs, so can almond blossoms - especially when rendered thusly:

http://www.turkotek.com/show_and_tell/CHB01.jpg

And then, to lure Pat back from the hinterlands of reality, this Khamseh morgi rug with botehs sprinkled liberally in the border:

http://www.turkotek.com/show_and_tell/kham02.jpg

:cheers:
Chuck

[Chuck Wagner]

Dinie,

Here's a closeup of the critter at the top of the Baluch prayer rug:

http://www.turkotek.com/salon_00124/s124_t1_files/balpry3.jpg

Regards
Chuck

[Joel Greifinger]

Ever since Pat relocated to Independent CHAZistan his incidence of mystical visions per post has increased markedly, interpreting bi-colored split running-dog borders motifs hallucigenically , as revisionist ersatz botehs. etc....

Chuck,

I'm almost totally with you on this, but

First, that piece of Joel's that I think Pat, in a moment of clarity, saw correctly as a wegirah

my understanding of wagirehs is that they were commercial samplers, giving potential clients a sense of the design repertoire that could be provided on order. They generally previewed possible motifs for a rug that could be commissioned.
Can you identify any such recognizable motifs in the Hamadan mat that I posted? :laughing_2:

Joel

[Filiberto Boncompagni]

http://www.turkotek.com/show_and_tell/PAT_W_qback.jpg

http://www.turkotek.com/show_and_tell/PAT_W_qback1.jpg

[Chuck Wagner]

Filiberto,

Well said..

Chuck

:confused: