Hi Steve and All,
The book
Sovereign
Carpets: Unknown Masterpieces from European Collections by Alberto
Levi and Edoardo Concaro presents a selection of rugs belonging to
European private collections, besides a set of rugs coming from the
Russian ethnographic museum of St. Petersburg. It was first published on
the occasion of the exhibition 'Sovrani Tappeti' in 1999 in Milan. The
rugs from the museum of St. Petersburg are described under the titel 'The
Turkmen Wedding', with an introduction by Irina Boguslavskaya and Elena
Tsareva. The authors make a fairly firm distinction between the various
kinds of bags on the one side, and camel trappings on the other. They seem
to make the distinction mostly based on the designs, with the west of
Turkmenistan producing the 5 or 7 sided asmalyks, with an arrangement of
five tree stems, and the rectangular type with "long rectangular panels
with two rows of
kejebe (wedding litter) motif, each arch of which
contains a vertical standing figure, usually interpreted as a
'Tree-of-Life'. Rather similar to the
kejebe is a
darvaza
(gate) composition, notable for large central rosettes."
The
collection includes one Chodor piece only, a wedding trapping
. The description in the introduction:
"Another representative of this family of designs (kejebe and darvaza, DG)
is a Chodor trapping of breathtaking beauty (inv.no. KOV-224). The
trapping is decorated with three pairs of
half-ertmen guls, and
central contour-drawn stepped rosettes. The shape and arrangement of the
main element, together with the 'tree-of-Life' and pairs of birds filling
of
ertmens, leave no doubt as to their relationship to the
darvaza and
kejebe designs." The authors further remark that
there is a common element in all these wedding trapping designs: the tree
of life, "an obligatory attribute of wedding rituals of many Central Asian
peoples of the past". Also:" As to the different shapes for the trappings-
pentagonal and rectangular- it is possible that this was related in the
past to the need to adapt to different breeds of camels: Arabian and
Bactrian. Until now this is speculation and to be sure one has to study
the use by Turkmen of different kinds of camels in different
times."
There are two Salor pieces which the authors call
trappings, though design wise they could also be seen as tent bags. In
this case the authors say: "The main reason why these pieces are not
thought to be tent bags is because of the type of finish, which is
practically identical for all types of camel trappings" They don't give an
explanation about what to look for, but I guess they are referring to the
ivory plain weave folded over to the back and sown down, and the
fringe.
Sorry for the long quotes, but as I know less than most about
the subject, it seemed wise to let the authors themselves
speak.
Patrick, many of the trappings here have what looks like
remains of hanging cords. The bags don't have them, as far as I can see,
though one Tekke mafrash has a sewn on plait to the sides which looks like
it could have been longer in the past.
If someone with this book
and a scanner could reproduce p. 214 here, that would be great. Otherwise
I will take a picture of the page and send it to Steve later today or
tomorrow.
There is another, very similar Chodor wedding trapping in
the Sotheby's catalogue of the sale of carpets from the collection of Dr.
and Mrs. Jon Thompson in New York, December 16, 1993. It has the same tree
and bird filling in the ertmen guls. I will send Steve a picture of the
photo and description of the piece, #37. Unless again there is someone
else with catalogue and scanner????????????? ???
In your piece,
Steve, the extra row of ertmen guls spoils the gate design, while the guls
themselves do not have the tree and birds in them. So according to the
Russian Rule
your piece should be called a chuval, I
guess. This will not keep me from offering it the place of honour, or even
honor, in our house, if it would like to see something of Canada.
Breathlessly waiting for its
reply.
Dinie