Posted by Marvin Amstey on May 01, 1999 at 13:37:16:
In Reply to: What about some other matters? posted by Steve Price on May 01, 1999 at 07:03:59:
: Dear Folks,
: We've had some interesting conjectures and observations about the differences between Turkmen and NW Persian tribes in the use of box-like bags and salt bags, and even about how the relative weights of the pile and flatweave techniques may have led the two groups in different directions in terms of technique preference.
: But we haven't yet touched on some of the other differences between them. For example, the NW Persians used cotton whites, this is rather unusual among the Turkmen (except for the Saryk). Does this reflect different levels of contact with settled (I still find the term "sedentary" a bit jarring) people?
: What about the palette? Is there any significance to the Turkmen palette being so dominated by derivatives of madder?
: The layout? The Turkmen use of borders as a window to an infinitely repeating field, the undecorated area around the borders, the elem. Do these tell us anything?
: Steve Price
Steve, I have both a Yomud tentband fragment with white cotton and a very old 12 gul Tekke torba with a portion of three rosettes in the gul centers made of white cotton. In addtion there are number of Yomud flatweaves with cotton used for the white. You are correct in pointing out that tribes in NW Persia use white cotton as a decorative element more often, but this aspect like some of the others in this discussion about differences is not an exclusive one. Regards, Marvin