Abrash or ?

[Lee Hayes Junior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Lee Hayes]

I am stumped … if this is Abrash , I’ve never seen it in such a defined strip of weave . It does show thru on the back of rug so I assume it is a dye issue , however in such a narrow strip of weave and so even ?
I shall appreciate any thoughts … and also whether this type of abrash , if it is that , affects value.
many thanks … Lee Hayes

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

Hi Lee,

Yes, it's abrash alright. But abrash occurences are not all equal. The kind that most people find "folksy-rustic attractive" is the result of several phenomena, mostly variations in dye characteristics on a scale small enough to be highly variable within a single skein of wool. Modern Qashqai weavers have managed to approximate the small scale pseudo-randomness on a commercial scale, as seen in modern gabbeh pieces.

Your example fails to reproduce the "folksy-rustic" part. This is a workshop piece, not a product of nomadic weavers. And it is clearly a dye issue; I would guess that a skein of red wool that -looked- the same as the rest at the time, was used only to reveal later, a less attractive response to exposure to light.

We've had several chats about abrash over the years; here are a couple links:

http://www.turkotek.com/mini_salon_00006/ms6_t2.htm

http://www.turkotek.com/salon_00088/s88t5.htm

We don't discuss monetary value here, but from an artistic standpoint, it's not something that collectors would seek out.

We had a wide-ranging discussion on ethnographic value and dyes, years ago:

http://www.turkotek.com/misc_00004/discussion.htm

Regards
Chuck Wagner