Posted by Patrick Weiler on 08-25-2004 11:30 AM:

Yastiks

Here is a pair of Eastern Anatolian yastiks that are just a little bit alike:



Side by side you can see that they have the same design, down to many of the same details. The second one has a diamond in the center of the medallion, but otherwise they are quite similar.
The colors are reversed, however, with the first one having a blue field and red medallion and the second one having a red field and a blue medallion. Both have white dots at the tips of the arrows in the medallions. The lsingle lappet at the bottom of the first one is different than the lappets at both ends of the second.

I had the first one for a number of years before acquiring the second. The first one has a thicker, meatier wool (where it is not worn down) and is a bit narrower in proportion.
Yastik one has been attributed to the Malatya area and I would assume the second is probably from the same area.

Patrick Weiler


Posted by Richard Tomlinson on 08-26-2004 04:41 AM:

Hi Patrick

I like these yastiks very much. As you say they are very similar. Both have a great border, field, and good colour harmony.

I have been trying to think why I prefer the 1st piece. I think it is the narrow format. I seem to have a special affinity to long bags/pillows.

I think the colours in the central medallion are 'lighter' as well.
# 1 is the summer yastik, # 2 the winter :-)

Nice couple. Which one is older do you think?

Regards
Richard Tomlinson


Posted by Patrick Weiler on 08-26-2004 11:10 PM:

Richard,

The first yastik may have that warmer feel due to the red being madder. The second piece may have a chochineal red, also described as a colder, bluish red.
The first piece has been published in the Morehouse book Yastiks and in Pacific Northwest Collections - the recent ACOR publication (still available in print). I bought it more than 10 years ago.
The second was an e-bay purchase a little more than a year ago.
I believe the first piece to be 3rd quarter or earlier 19th century. It has no synthetic dyes. It could be older. Turkish weavers were exuberantly using synthetic dyes as soon as they were available.
The second is no later than the 4th quarter of the 19th century.
The first has been attributed to the Malatya, or eastern, Anatolia area. The second piece is quite likely from the same area. The differences could be related to age. Or they could have been woven by different tribes from the same area.
I know of no other similar pieces.

Patrick Weiler


Posted by Louis Dubreuil on 09-05-2004 11:31 AM:

Father and son

Bonsoir Patrick

Those two yastiks have a "family look", that is undeniable.
But we can see great differences between them. The first one is very well proportionated and skillfuly drawn with a pretty good dynamic design in the borders and in the central medalion. This rug has been weaved by a weaver that was completly "pluged" with the tradition, with the criteria used at her time to say if a rug is good or not (criteria within the tribe, not commercial criteria).
The second appears to me as a "heavy styled" copy of the first, made without the internal knowledge of the design that seems to be obvious in the first yastik. The motives are the same but proportions, combination of colors, hesitations in the drawing (compare the two borders) place, for me, the second yastik far under the first. Only the first have " a soul" for me. The second yastik is also wronged by the cold red that has not the good virbrations produced by the madder dying of the first.

I have two anatolian (?) bags that show the same problem with an identical design : the first have a "soul" and the second is only just "well done". I'll post pictures of them soon.

Meilleures salutations a tous

Louis Dubreuil


Posted by Vincent Keers on 09-05-2004 05:33 PM:

Hi Patrick,

Please let the left one be upside down.
I like the S border in the first one.
Looking at the border, it isn't upside down.
But I like it more upside down.
If not, I think I need help.

Best regards,
Vincent


Posted by Patrick Weiler on 09-06-2004 02:31 PM:

right side up

Vincent,

The rug is published in Yastiks upside down. Apparently Morehouse also likes it better that way!
The photos are not accurate in showing the rugs side-by-side. The first rug is 48" long x 24" wide and the second is only 41" long x 25" wide. The first is only an inch narrower, but 7" longer.
You may need help, but not because you like the first rug upside down!

Patrick Weiler