Posted by Christoph Huber on April 07, 1999 at 13:55:53:
In Reply to: Re: Paired bag faces posted by Yon Bard on April 03, 1999 at 15:27:53:
Dear Yon
I was today near Zurich to help a friend of mine to prepare his exhibition. Most of the chuvals were still in the storeroom, but out of the about ten, twelve pieces accessible (mainly Yomud and some of them were pairs) only one had its pile running up.
There was also a pair of Mafrach normally attributed to Tekke or Yomud with two white reserves with stylised "flowers" inside (see for an example with three white fields: Tzareva, E., Teppiche aus Mittelasien und Kasachstan, No. 60): both had pile running down.
Talking about prayer-rugs having pile running up, my friend (Reto Christoffel) said, that he was told, that they where meant to be for women, because the areas in the mosques where the women prayed, sometimes behind a wooden lattice, were dark and there a carpet with pile running down would have had a too dark effect.
Examining little Turkmen saddle-bags, which have (what everyone expects) one face pile running down and the other pile running up, an other question (perhaps to Marla Mallett?) came to my mind: Where the middle-part is knotted, the pile would (on horizontal loom) during manufacture have pointed to the ground. It is possible to work this way or are knotted middle-parts an indication of (later?) products made on a vertical loom?
Regards, Christoph