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Dear all,
A couple of weeks ago (and after a long hiatus), I came across a few interesting rugs at a local monthly auction. Turned out they all came from the estate of a deceased person, who must have been something of a collector. However, no real attribution to the rugs was provided on the auction website. I secured four of the five rugs I was interested in and would like to share them on Turkotek. Two of the rugs were antique Turkmen chuvals and the other two certainly looked like Baluch work to me. I'd like to begin with the two Baluch and get feedback on my dating, etc.
The first one looks like a pretty typical "5th quarter 19th century" Baluch rug to me:
The size of the rug is 95 x 175 cm, even wear with a couple of worn spots. Five colors: white, dark blue, dark brown, medium brown, and pinkish red. The dark brown is noticeably corroded. I suspect the rug has experienced some kind of chemical treatment as the pronounced color difference between the front and the back does not look like natural fading.
I could not find really close relatives of the design from my library, but some of the mid-19th century Baluch in Siawosch Azadi's Carpets in the Baluch Tradition (pl. 4 / Madad Khani?, Khorassan, Kainat and pl. 9 / Khorassan, Kainat) and especially the 19th century rug in Franz Bausback's Alte Knüpfarbeiten der Belutchen (p. 45) share design elements of the main field.
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And here's the other, maybe a more exciting one! I was genuinely baffled by this rug as it looks like a reasonably old Baluch with intact kilims, but with a pretty wild design that was wholly unfamiliar to me:
The size of this mystery rug is 110 x 155 cm without kilims (length 195 cm with them), even wear except for a worn patch in the middle. Plenty of abrash, but here's how I would attempt to list the colors: white, medium brown, dark brown, black-brown, red in two distinct shades, orange, and blue (cf. the kilim stripes). I suspect that would be quite a palette for an antique Baluch rug? None of the colors looks like an obvious synthetic, but I'm far from sure about that. The black-brown and dark brown are very heavily corroded with the pile practically gone.
I would not call the design beautiful, but it certainly looks "tribal"! The only examples I could find from the literature that even remotely resemble the design of this rug are James Opie's Tribal Rugs pl. 13.15 (p. 237) and the Eilands' Oriental Rugs pl. 97 (p. 131).
Here's one more photo of the two rugs on top of my mid-20th century Afghan:
Any ideas about the age and tribal origins of the two rugs will be much appreciated!
Best,
Mikko
A couple of weeks ago (and after a long hiatus), I came across a few interesting rugs at a local monthly auction. Turned out they all came from the estate of a deceased person, who must have been something of a collector. However, no real attribution to the rugs was provided on the auction website. I secured four of the five rugs I was interested in and would like to share them on Turkotek. Two of the rugs were antique Turkmen chuvals and the other two certainly looked like Baluch work to me. I'd like to begin with the two Baluch and get feedback on my dating, etc.
The first one looks like a pretty typical "5th quarter 19th century" Baluch rug to me:
The size of the rug is 95 x 175 cm, even wear with a couple of worn spots. Five colors: white, dark blue, dark brown, medium brown, and pinkish red. The dark brown is noticeably corroded. I suspect the rug has experienced some kind of chemical treatment as the pronounced color difference between the front and the back does not look like natural fading.
I could not find really close relatives of the design from my library, but some of the mid-19th century Baluch in Siawosch Azadi's Carpets in the Baluch Tradition (pl. 4 / Madad Khani?, Khorassan, Kainat and pl. 9 / Khorassan, Kainat) and especially the 19th century rug in Franz Bausback's Alte Knüpfarbeiten der Belutchen (p. 45) share design elements of the main field.
__
And here's the other, maybe a more exciting one! I was genuinely baffled by this rug as it looks like a reasonably old Baluch with intact kilims, but with a pretty wild design that was wholly unfamiliar to me:
The size of this mystery rug is 110 x 155 cm without kilims (length 195 cm with them), even wear except for a worn patch in the middle. Plenty of abrash, but here's how I would attempt to list the colors: white, medium brown, dark brown, black-brown, red in two distinct shades, orange, and blue (cf. the kilim stripes). I suspect that would be quite a palette for an antique Baluch rug? None of the colors looks like an obvious synthetic, but I'm far from sure about that. The black-brown and dark brown are very heavily corroded with the pile practically gone.
I would not call the design beautiful, but it certainly looks "tribal"! The only examples I could find from the literature that even remotely resemble the design of this rug are James Opie's Tribal Rugs pl. 13.15 (p. 237) and the Eilands' Oriental Rugs pl. 97 (p. 131).
Here's one more photo of the two rugs on top of my mid-20th century Afghan:
Any ideas about the age and tribal origins of the two rugs will be much appreciated!
Best,
Mikko
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