Is this a Mushwani Kilim or not?

[Amna Abbas Registered Find all posts View Profile Close Amna Abbas]

Hi Guys,

This is my very first post here.

I was wondering if you guys could help me identify the origin of this kilim; in my limited knowledge, this looks much like a Mushwani kilim. However, identifying/differentiating between Baloch and Baloch-type goods is a great pain. I am myself a Baloch from Balochistan and can never seem to get it right.

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

Hi Amna and welcome to Turkotek

FYI, we require both first and last name for user names on Turkotek. If you woulkd provide your family name I'll update your record accordingly and put the new user name in this thread.

As for your kilim, others may have a different opinion but based on my limited understanding I don't think it is a Mushwani piece. Any older (pre-World War 2) Mushwani piece I've seen has been pile rather than kilim. If you go to the archives from the home page and search under: Mushwani you will find several discussions on such pieces.

Sometime in tle 1960's or 1970's, a few kilim pieces began showing up in the market called Mushwani. After the Russian-Afghan war, a lot of newer ones appeared in the market, and these had some distinct characteristics that I don't see on yours. Specifically, a mix of piled areas and kilim areas. We own one; images below.

There is a type of Baluch kilim that has a very dark palette called Malaki. The palette on yours is similar but the entire area of your piece is full of motifs. The Malaki kilms have large areas of plainweave, with patterns restricted to horizontal bands.

The star motif is common on Baluch work from far west Afghanistan, particularly the region around Farah, as well as on Malaki pieces like this one:



So if yours is Mushwani I suppose it is an earlier one from mid 20th century.

As noted above, I don't see it as distinctly Mushwani (unless there are piled areas too), but I think likely from the region around Farah.

Here are some images of ours; it's from the 1970s-1980s.

Regards
Chuck Wagner

The red area with the diamond motifs is piled rather than kilim:



Piled areas throughout the field



The whole thing:

[Amna Abbas]

Hello Chuck, Amna Abbas here! Thank you for your response! I do agree with you. Upon some more digging, I, too, don't believe it is a Mushwani. I have been looking for a Mushwani, and the one in your collection is perfect! I am writing a book about how Baloch embroidery motifs are found in kilims from across the globe and would love to use an image of yours if you could email it to me
amna.abbas.5a@gmail.com

cheers