Small mystery rug - Salor ak chuval elem?

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

Some months ago I purchased this to me at least somewhat unusual small rug on Ebay from a Swiss seller:


Here is the seller's description:

"O ANTIQUE FINE 19 CENTURY TURKMEN WITH SILK HIGHLIGHTS 7.8 x 34.6 in O
ORIGINAL VINTAGE ANTIQUE 19 CENTURY TRIBAL ARTWORK
ALL WOOL WITH SILK PARTS
20xX88CM or 7.8x34.6 in
ALL ORGANIC VEGETABLE COLORS
A COMPLETE BOTTOM PANEL FRAGMENT
RARE POWERFUL DESIGN AND COLOR COMBINATION
HIGH GRADE COLLECTORS QUALITY
SWISS ESTATE FIND"

Having no idea what this really was, I hectically started searching through my Turkoman books and found this picture in Siawosch Azadi's Turkoman Carpets (The Crosby Press, 1975):

s:

There it is, a "complete bottom panel fragment" for sure. Here is Azadi's description of the piece in his book:

"34 Salor ak chuval
1.14 x 0.78 Second half 19th century Private collection, Hamburg
The principle of the decoration of such pieces is expressed in alternating horizontal strips of undecorated kelim weave and decorated piled areas. The lower elem panel has a knotted white ground, usually of cotton, hence the name ak- or white- chuval. The twelve strips carry six design variants: kbamtos, kurbaghe, dyrnak-kotshak or durli-kotshak, tsbarkb-falak, and at the bottom, kelle or kelleli-gul.
Warp: wool, s-plied, 2 strands, undyed, light ivory, 90 threads per 10cm.
Weft: wool, z-plied, 2 strands, not twisted, dyed, red and dark blue; cotton, z-plied, 2 strands, not twisted, undyed, white. 1 shoot tightly introduced. Lower white ground portion has one weft after every 2 rows of knots but not offset. 1 weft after every row in the stripes. 220 weft threads per 10cm.
Pile: wool, z-plied, 2 strands, not twisted; cotton, z-plied, 4 strands, not twisted, undyed, white, knots As4, count 100-120 x 45 = ca. 4,500-5,500 knots per dm2, height 2cm. Handle: velvety, thin, fine grained.
Upper end: white cotton kelim, turned over and sewn on. 2 red-green strips. Goat hair braiding sewn on at the edge.
Lower end: white cotton kelim, cut. Selvedge: round, wool or cotton.
Colours: seven: mid-red, blue-red, brown-red, dark brown, green-black, blue-black, white."

What do you think? Has Azadi solved my small mystery? Are these "elems" rare? I for one have never seen one like this one before as far as I can remember and Azadi's picture is the only illustration of one I have been able to find.

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

Hi Erik

It's the elem (skirt) of a Tekke ak-chuval. Here's a link to one I own (turkotek.com/salon_00027/s27t4.htm); I have an elem from another. Ak-chuvals aren't common, but they aren't rarities either.

Steve Price

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

Thank you, Steve, very nice piece you have! Do you think Azadi's attribution of the piece in his book to Salor is wrong? Salor pieces are known to be very rare and always quite old, although I have seen some questioning this.

[Joe Lawrence Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Joe Lawrence]

I know who/of the seller you bought from. His items are normally very good and original. By all accounts he is legit and professional. Sometimes he doesn’t list what a piece is for example he listed an Asmalyk but didn’t use any term to identify it as such and it sold for rather cheap.

You have a nice piece and I can’t help you on it other than this… most rug dealers regardless of where they live Al say the same thing. There are tons of books out there and all but about 4-5 are incorrect with attributions and what the piece was used for. With that in mind, find the oldest books you can with good pics and start looking from there.

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

Thank you, Steve, very nice piece you have! Do you think Azadi's attribution of the piece in his book to Salor is wrong? Salor pieces are known to be very rare and always quite old, although I have seen some questioning this.

If Azadi's piece is knotted asymmetrically open to the left, it's probably Salor; knots open to the right, probably Tekke. Azadi would know that, so his Salor attribution is probably correct.

Salor work is quite rare, usually pretty old. But I'm sitting at a desktop computer and the wall behind the monitor has a Salor chuval that most people would agree is probably late 19th century. It's on Turkotek somewhere, but I can't find it at the moment.

Steve Price

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

I'm sitting at a desktop computer and the wall behind the monitor has a Salor chuval that most people would agree is probably late 19th century. It's on Turkotek somewhere, but I can't find it at the moment.

Aha! Found it. Here's a link.

Steve Price

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

Thank you again, Steve, for the tip about the knots and for sharing the highly readable article on your wonderful Salor ayna gul! For my inexpert eye, it is impossible to determine if my piece has asymmetrical knots open to the left or the right, but judging from the almost perfect similarity to the pattern of Azadi's Salor piece, I would be inclined to believe that it indeed may be a Salor, if his is one. The pattern or your Tekke appears to be somewhat different. What do you think?

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

Hi Erik

Here's a simple way to distinguish asymmetric right from left. First orient the piece so the knots woven first are at the bottom. You can determine which end was woven first by running your hand along the pile in the direction of the warps. One direction will feel smooth, the other will resist. Because the pile gets bent toward the end woven first as the weaver packs down each row, the "smooth" direction leads to the end woven first. Now, with the end woven first at the bottom, move your hand across the warps (side to side). The side that offers the most resistance is the side to which the knots are open. This works best if the pile isn't worn down to the foundation. There are other easy ways to do it, but try this one first.

Best,

Steve

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

Thank you again! I am not totally sure, but following your instructions I believe the knots are open to the left. The main difficulty for me is to determine the direction of the weaving, as the pile is very short and the difference in feeling is not great between the two directions. If I am right, the border was woven last and the picture of the rug in my first post is upside down, as it were. That appears a little odd to me, however, as what looks like stylized trees were then woven from the tree's top to the root.

[Mikko Saikku Junior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Mikko Saikku]

Hi Steve (and others more familiar with structural questions),

How about symmetrical ("Turkish"/"Ghiordes") knotting under hand--no slanting to either side, right?

Mikko

[Joe Lawrence Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Joe Lawrence]

On all of my Turkish rugs, the “rough” side to side feel all go to the right.

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

Hi Steve (and others more familiar with structural questions),

How about symmetrical ("Turkish"/"Ghiordes") knotting under hand--no slanting to either side, right?

Mikko

Hi Mikko

When the weaver puts in knots, she uses a length of yarn, ties the "knot". then pulls the ends and snips them. The weaver will tend to pull them all in the same direction, so symmetric knots will feel like asymmetric when a simple test like the one I described is used. Rugs woven in Turkey, the Caucasus, Saryk and Yomud Turkmen, and part of Iran all use symmetric knots. The simple method I described only works if you know that the knotting is asymmetric before you start.

To reliably determine whether knots are symmetric, asymmetric left or asymmetric right, here's how to do it. First, place the rug pile side facing you and the end woven first at the bottom. Then bend the rug away from you in the plane of the wefts (horizontally). This will let you see the base of the knots. Find a spot where knots of two different colors meet. Look at their base. It will be apparent with each one that the pile either emerges from a collar that encloses both tufts (symmetrical) or that one tuft is enclosed by a collar and the other tuft isn't (asymmetric). Whichever side has the unenclosed tuft is the direction in which the knot is open.

Steve

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

Hi Erik, Mikko,

This image shows all three of the most common knot symmetries, so you can compare, and also, think about Steve's correct description of how the pile should feel for each of them when rubbed from one direction or another. The upper arrow points at the node of the knot and the lower arrow points into the pile of that same knot.

Regards
Chuck

[Mikko Saikku Junior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Mikko Saikku]

Steve and Chuck,

Thank you for the great "Knots for Dummies" lesson! (I have received the same information from various books many times before, but I think your explanation here is the clearest I've seen.)

I went back to my brown mystery chuval, and can report that the knots open left. That would seem to rule out the Chodor attribution(?). As for symmetric/asymmetric, I just cannot make out the difference with this fine a weaving--need a better magnifying glass!

Best,

Mikko