Chuck Wagner

Hi Steve,

It is quite unusual for us to have a Salor piece to examine in real detail, and I would like to ask that you post a few more images of some seriously closeup views, especially the back and any edge/end treatment details. We have loads of examples of other Turkoman weaving here on TTek, but few Salor works.

Regards
Chuck

Steve Price

Hi Chuck

Here are a few more details. The colors look pretty close to reality in these.







I'm a bit reluctant to make too much of the structural elements because the knot density is around half of that of every published Salor bag I know about and the warp depression is correspondingly less pronounced. My Salor attribution is based on the asymmetric knots open to the left, the palette, the vocabulary of motifs and borders, and the dark blue woven-in fringe at the bottom.

Regards

Steve Price

James Blanchard

Hi Steve,

I can't offer much related to a number of your questions. The execution of the design in yours is remarkably similar to the other two examples that you cite, and I would say superior in some regards. The ruby-red colouring of yours looks marvelous, and I don't think we often see that in some of the later Turkmen trappings.

I am a bit puzzled by the seemingly lower knot count and less depression of alternate warps, but I would have a difficult time placing this piece in the camp of the Tekke, which I suppose would be the only potential alternative. That begs the question: is this just a very good version woven late, or actually woven earlier but with lower knot density? Whatever the answer, aesthetically I think it ranks with the others.

Congratulations!

James

Steve Price

Hi James

Thanks for the kind words. The colors in real life are as rich and saturated as you might guess from seeing them on a monitor.

I find the 8 gul format (12 or more is usual) very attractive. It's hard to know how it relates to the rather low (for a Salor) knot density, but there's probably a relationship of some sort. Perhaps the larger guls were used because the lower knot density doesn't lend itself to extremely fine detail, perhaps weaver decided to use the larger guls and realized that extra fine weaving would add nothing to the appearance but would increase her labor.

Regards

Steve Price