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New member here (my wife and I) and what a pleasure it is to be around like minded people whom enjoy the Turkoman rugs and culture.
I have read through most of the posts here and on the old forum page. What a wealth of information.
I thought I would share an unusual story that happened to me a few months ago. While always on the hunt to possibly buy or just study various rugs from the Turkmen era, I found a dowry rug from the Tekke tribe that caught my eye. The person selling it only knew it was a Turkmen rug so I turned to my books to help me determine more information on it. I try my hardest to attempt to date a piece within 25 year increments of that century. Luckily my team of experts like authors Moshkova, Loges, O’Bannon and MacDonald left us a wealth of information and pics to assist us. While looking through MacDonalds book, “Tribal Rugs treasures of the Black Tent” (1997 edition) and more specifically page #41, I found a very similar rug to the one I was looking at buying. Over a period of a week, the more I looked at it, the more and more it appeared to be identical. At first I thought it was a very good twin from the book. The more I looked at it and even under a magnifying glass, the more confident I was looking at the same published rug!
Well, nearly 30 years has passed since the rug in the book was photographed and today, the rug has a little more wear on it.
I took a chance and reached out to the author. He did confirm it was his rug at one point and was extremely kind and helpful. Major props to him for his assistance.
I have enclosed a pic of the carpet today and a pic from the book from the top right corner. I did not want to post the full pic from the book without the authors consent.
I do love this fine example dated by the author from the 3rd quarter of the 19th century, and of course, from the Tekke tribe. What are the odds of doing research and finding an purchasing a “lost” published piece? Blind luck.
Joe Lawrence
I have read through most of the posts here and on the old forum page. What a wealth of information.
I thought I would share an unusual story that happened to me a few months ago. While always on the hunt to possibly buy or just study various rugs from the Turkmen era, I found a dowry rug from the Tekke tribe that caught my eye. The person selling it only knew it was a Turkmen rug so I turned to my books to help me determine more information on it. I try my hardest to attempt to date a piece within 25 year increments of that century. Luckily my team of experts like authors Moshkova, Loges, O’Bannon and MacDonald left us a wealth of information and pics to assist us. While looking through MacDonalds book, “Tribal Rugs treasures of the Black Tent” (1997 edition) and more specifically page #41, I found a very similar rug to the one I was looking at buying. Over a period of a week, the more I looked at it, the more and more it appeared to be identical. At first I thought it was a very good twin from the book. The more I looked at it and even under a magnifying glass, the more confident I was looking at the same published rug!
Well, nearly 30 years has passed since the rug in the book was photographed and today, the rug has a little more wear on it.
I took a chance and reached out to the author. He did confirm it was his rug at one point and was extremely kind and helpful. Major props to him for his assistance.
I have enclosed a pic of the carpet today and a pic from the book from the top right corner. I did not want to post the full pic from the book without the authors consent.
I do love this fine example dated by the author from the 3rd quarter of the 19th century, and of course, from the Tekke tribe. What are the odds of doing research and finding an purchasing a “lost” published piece? Blind luck.
Joe Lawrence
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