Afshar Soumak weave carpet

[Richard Kershenbaum Junior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Richard Kershenbaum]

Hello everyone. I came across this forum, and thought I'd see if anyone could tell us more about this carpet. My wife and I were in Istanbul last year, and decided to visit the Ferikoy Antiques Market, held on Sundays in a big parking garage, away from the areas that tourists frequent. We're not knowledgeable about carpets, and we go more for the experience, and to rub elbows with locals than to buy anything. But this carpet really grabbed us, and we had to have it.

The dealer (who has an established shop in the Beyoglu section of Istanbul) told us that it was an Afshar soumak weave piece, probably made in Iran in the 1970s or 1980s. He said that he had purchased it from an estate in istanbul. A friend who's a collector and dealer said that the central motifs are "gul farang". I've looked online, and haven't found anything quite like it. Everything is asymmetrical, and none of the patterns in the center section repeats exactly. Each of the motifs is a little different from any of the others which, for me, makes it endlessly fascinating to look at.

Any reactions from the experts here would be most welcome.

[PaulSmith Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close PaulSmith]

Hi Richard,

Ah, now we're all settled. I just thought I'd respond with my (continued) impression from the last post, which is that this looks a good deal more authentic and finely-woven than I would expect an Afshar from c.1970-80 to look. I would guess c.1920s for this, but it's true that it is in pristine condition... maybe (?) someone was weaving like this in the latter 20th century, but I doubt it. I especially like the botehs in the field, looking like musical notation eighth notes. Hopefully we'll hear from some experts here.

Welcome,

Paul

[Richard Kershenbaum Junior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Richard Kershenbaum]

Thanks, Paul!

It's definitely in mint condition. Regardless of its age, I doubt that it was ever walked on. I suppose it could have been just folded up and stored for 40 (or 100?) years. We've hung it on a wall in our house for better viewing -- and also because I'd feel very uncomfortable walking on something so intricate and beautiful.

Looking forward to any information or impressions from the experts here.

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

Hi Richard,

These pieces are children of the 1970s and 1980's. Most are attributed to Iran but I heard from a dealer in the Persian Gulf that he had bought identical work that was being produced in Turkey by Afshar families that relocated. So for me, it's stil a bit of a mystery. That said, the construction methods and palette are typical of this genre. We have one similar piece (see below).
Regards
Chuck

p.s. Don't ask me what that wacky motif is supposed to represent...

[Richard Kershenbaum Junior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Richard Kershenbaum]

Wow, thanks, Chuck. That's the first one I've seen with the "wacky" motifs (which I love for their pure wackiness) similar to ours. A friend who's a collector and dealer thought they were gul farang motifs -- highly abstracted flowers. Maybe another expert here will chime in with an answer. On yours, like ours, nothing repeats exactly. Whoever designed these must have been having some fun mapping out those variations. I feel like these are the works of really gifted artists.

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

Richard,

Here's an article on Jozan.net regarding Afshar work in Turkey. Having seen this I now assess that the dealer I spoke with had it a little wrong, or my recollection of the conversation is flawed. I prefer the former; I recall him thinking they were being made in Turkey. We have a couple of these, purchased in the Persian Gulf region when the embargo had been lifted.

https://www.jozan.net/buying-rugs-in-turkey-rah-rah-kilims/

Regards
Chuck

[Richard Kershenbaum Junior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Richard Kershenbaum]

Thanks again, Chuck. That's interesting information. I suppose ours could have been made in Turkey in the 1990s rather than the 1970s or 80s. It certainly doesn't show any signs of wear. It doesn't appear to have had the "tea wash" treatment.

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

It doesn't appear to have had the "tea wash" treatment.

Hi Richard

One of the few things of which I'm certain is that it didn't have the tea wash.

Steve Price

[Dinie Gootjes Member Find all posts View Profile Close Dinie Gootjes]

Hi Richard,

Sorry, this reply is a mess. I lost text, and the pictures are out of place. I will try again tomorrow.

I think I saw your soumak somewhere on Facebook, but I didn't have time then and I am not a member of that group, so I am glad to find you back here.

As others mentioned, your rug is one of a group of weavings called Gul Ferengi (with all kinds of spellings), meaning something like foreign/French rose. It seems that at a certain point in time, groups of weavers were given examples of Western carpets, often with roses, to use as models for rugs for export. Some of those ended up as pretty exact copies, but in many cases the weavers gave the design a twist of their own. In time the design deteriorated more and more, till the results looked so abstract, that only if you had seen some of the in-between stages, you would know what you were looking at.

The design of your rug is called the Kerman rose. It consists of a red and a white rose, with a kind of lily above the white one. That core bouquet is surrounded by filler flowers, below that you can see two leaves in an inverted V shape, and under that a few stems. It is funny that even in the most abstract renderings the stems and the V shape are retained. You can easily find them in both your rug and Chuck's.
The original design must have looked something like the carpet below. Btw, the first two rows are upside down, so look at the bottom row

[Richard Kershenbaum Junior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Richard Kershenbaum]

Thank you , Dinie. That's great information. Others on Facebook, and a local friend who is a collector and dealer, have called this a gul farang or gul ferengi design, but it was difficult (until now) for me to see the representation of flowers. It's interesting how they threw in animal forms, too. These weavers really exhibited some brilliant creativity.

[Dinie Gootjes Member Find all posts View Profile Close Dinie Gootjes]

Hi again Richard,

Joel Greifinger managed to restore my pictures to their proper size, but some of the text was lost too. I am afraid to edit the original message, for fear of messing things up again, so maybe I can just make some remarks here. If you look at the first picture I posted, there are some loose lily flowers in the corners and between the bouquets. That flower appears in a number of Afshar chanteh, small bags for personal possessions. I posted pictures of two of them. The item with the irregular shape is a modern work with the Kerman rose. It was shown at some kind of carpet exhibition or trade show, I forget where or what. So the design made it into the 21st century!

Besides the Kerman rose there are at least three or four distinctive groups of rose designs used in weavings from SW Persia, plus in NW Persia there is a rose that is very close to, but distinct from, the Kerman rose. It often appears in Bidjar or Senneh work.

I have been fascinated by what village weavers do with these Western European designs for a long time. I myself have one bag face with the Kerman rose, the last one posted, where the white rose has gone blue. There is a saying that good writers borrow, better writers steal. I think in the end these weavers also didn't only borrow these designs, they often stole them, made them their own. And good for them!

[Richard Kershenbaum Junior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Richard Kershenbaum]

Hi, Dinie. Yes, I can see from your great photos how the abstract designs on our carpet evolved from the much more representational floral designs. That's really fascinating.

The carpet in the photo that Chuck posted above is probably the most similar to ours. But ours seems to have everything -- the six abstract gul farang motifs (each different from the ohters), the little ducks (also all different from each other) and goats (?), and the multiple intricate borders. I haven't seen one -- here or elsewhere -- that I'd swap for ours.

Without knowing what we were doing (except for knowing what we like), I think we must have purchased a pretty special piece. We feel lucky to have it, and really enjoy looking at it.

Thanks again for all the great info.

[Holliday Anderson Junior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Holliday Anderson]

I came across this flat-weave runner (from the 1970s, I would guess?) today and it immediately reminded me of this thread and the gul fereng! I don't think I would have thought of a cluster of flowers when first looking at this design, but now it's all I see. How interesting to trace the "family tree" of a design motif through multiple iterations.