Natural Dye Bag

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

Here is an interesting piece I picked up a few years ago. The colors to me are rather stunning and in my opinion, are natural dyes. I believe this to be a saddlebag half and it measures 24 x 17 inches or 61 x 43 cm. It does have a few holes which don’t appear to be moth damage and hopefully was a result of daily usage. The back, although somewhat crude in appearance, lends to the notion of simplicity and utilitarian. I feel that too is a work of art.

I am unsure of attribution and tribe, but I am leaning on it being a Luri or Qashqai piece.

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

Nice piece! Some years ago, I purchased a somewhat similar pair of bags which I, after some literature research, identified as a Qashqai khorjin/saddlebag: .

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

That is a nice one!

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

The narrow strip of alternating black and white "dice" (top of Erik's bagface) is nearly diagnostic of Qashga'i work.

Steve Price

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

The dice weaving is a good tip. Thank you Steve. My bag has the same weaving that was folded behind the top lip.

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

My bag has the same weaving that was folded behind the top lip.

I noticed that, Erik's was just more prominent. I'm sure your and his are both Qashga'i.

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

Thanks Steve. At least I was very close to my assumption of Lur or Qashga’i since they were neighbors.

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

Helmut Reinisch's bilingual book on saddle bags is a good resource on this topic:

https://search.worldcat.org/title/15674725